Aryna Sabalenka Calls Out Roland Garros Organizers Over Lack Of 'Equal Treatment'
NewsWednesday, 04 June 2025 at 16:21
Aryna Sabalenka joined the list of players unhappy with the current scheduling of the night session matches at Roland Garros.
At Roland Garros, there is only one night session match, which always leaves the tournament organizers with a question: which match to schedule as the night match? There are many great matches played every day, but every time in the past two years, it was the men's match that was scheduled for the night session.
Already last year, this treatment of women's singles matches raised some eyebrows, and the calls for a change continue this year. Many WTA players feel like they should receive a chance to play the night match as well, but that hasn't happened in the past two years.
The highest-ranked player on the WTA Tour, Aryna Sabalenka, was asked about this issue, and she called out the Roland Garros organizers, saying that she believes women deserve a chance to showcase their craft on the biggest stage.
"I definitely agree with that. I definitely have to say that yeah we deserve equal treatment, like you said. There were a lot of great battles that would be cool to see as a night session."
"More people in the stands watching these incredible battles. Just to show our self to more people. I definitely agree that we deserve to be put on a bigger stage, better timing, more people watching."
The current Roland Garros tournament director, Amelie Mauresmo, was asked about the issue during her press conference at the event. As a former WTA player, she insisted that the scheduling has nothing to do with gender.
In fact, when asked the question, which implied that the decision to schedule only men's matches for the night session makes women feel 'not worthy,' Mauresmo immediately snapped back, saying that's not the message they are sending.
"That's not what we're saying. I have to stop you right there. For me, the message is not changing, and it has never been that the girls are not worthy to play at night. It's never been this. I will not accept that you carry this message. That's really clear to me."
"We have one single match per night session. It hasn't changed. Accordingly, we won't change everything again The play time also is taken into consideration, potential play time, obviously because we can't plan ahead, be it for women's tennis or men's tennis."
"But we have to take it into consideration as to the 15,000 spectators coming in for the night session. Since men's tennis is played at the best-of-five sets, three sets will be played at a minimum. It's complicated for us to do otherwise."
Luckily for Sabalenka and the rest of the women left in the draw, the last three women's singles matches played at the event will be played during primetime. Thursday will be the day of women's singles semi-finals, and on Saturday, the women's singles final will be played, with men's matches played on Friday and Sunday.
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