Amelie Mauresmo, the Roland Garros tournament director, has responded to increasing criticism about the lack of women's night matches at the 2023 competition.
Seven days after the start of the 2023 Roland Garros, Aryna Sabalenka defeated Sloane Stephens in the first WTA night match on the Court Philippe-Chatrtier. However, each of the previous six days had seen male singles matches take place on the prestigious court, which has caused controversy about the lack of respect towards the women's game.
The decision to have all male late matches until Sabalenka vs Stephens on Sunday has led to high-profile figures, such as Ons Jabeur and Stephens to criticise the move. When speaking to Eurosport, Mauresmo, who plays a part in the scheduling of the competition, agreed with the criticism and said the Sabalenka match was an example of why women's tennis should have a place high on the list.
“Ons [Jabeur] is right. The fact that we’ve only had one women’s match at night here makes it quite different to the US Open and Australian Open,"
“The choices aren’t easy to make and you have to take a lot of things into consideration. Tonight is the perfect match to promote women’s tennis and I look forward to these girls giving us a big show and a big fight.
Furthermore, Mauresmo elaborated that the possibility of having two night matches, and thus more women's games on Court Philippe-Chatier, was a consideration. However, she also stated that having an even split of men's and women's matches throughout the day was an equally pressing issue to get right.
“We definitely talked about it [having two night matches] and there was a debate around the men’s matches v women’s matches in the evening.
"We also always keep two women’s and two men’s matches on Chatrier which is very important to us.”
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