The director of the French Open says her recent comments that men’s matches are more appealing than women’s was taken out of context and that she is a staunch support of equality in sport.
Amelie Mauresmo, who is the first woman in history to hold the position of a tournament director at Roland Garros, suggested during a press conference on Wednesday that the reason why there has been more men’s matches given the night-time slot was because they are more appealing. This year eight out of the nine night-time slots were filled with men’s matches. The only exception was the clash between Alize Cornet and Jelena Ostapenko. Amazon Prime France has a key influence on who plays during that time as they hold the exclusive broadcasting rights.
“In this era that we are in right now, and as a woman, a former woman’s player, I don’t feel bad or unfair saying you have more attraction, more attractivity — can you say that? Appeal? — for the men’s matches,” Mauresmo told reporters.
“My goal when I was doing the schedule every day was to try and see a match in the women’s draw can I put there.
“Honestly, it was tough. It was tough for more than one night to find the match of the day.”
Following her remarks, women’s world No.1 Iga Swiatek said she was ‘disappointed and surprised’ by what Mauresmo had said. The WTA also issued a statement saying that there is room for improvement concerning scheduling and stated that the women’s game has an ‘incredible’ level of generation and depth.
Another notable factor in this year’s Grand Slam has been that 18 out of 20 singles matches scheduled first on Court Philippe Chatrier and Court Suzanne Lenglen have been women’s ties.
Following the criticism, Mauresmo has issued an apology to the players who she may have unintentionally offended during an interview with The Tennis Channel.
“The comments that I made were taken out of context and I want to say sorry to the players who felt bad about what I said,” she said.
“The people who know me on and off the court throughout my career know that I’m a big fighter for equal rights and women’s tennis, women’s rights in general.”
“Concerning the scheduling of the night sessions my say (comment) was that because we only have one match for the ticket holders. I feel that it’s tougher to schedule a women’s match because we have to take into consideration the length. That’s the fair thing to do for the ticket holder.”
The agreement for night-time sessions at the French Open starting at 8:45PM local time was made prior to Mauresmo’s appointment as tournament director. Which may restrict any potential change she may want to make due to contractual obligations. However, she is looking into potential ‘adjustments’ that could be made for next year’s tournament.
“I want to see if next year in order to be fair to the women’s players, as well as to both categories, it would be good to have the possibility of two matches (during a night session) or maybe a women’s match plus a doubles match. Try to find a better solution to be fair to everyone.” She said.
“I can see there are some adjustments that can be made and for sure we are going to talk about it after the tournament.”
If there would be two matches taking place during the night sessions, there will undoubtedly be calls to bring its start time forward. Rafael Nadal’s quarter-final clash with Novak Djokovic didn’t end until just after 1am. Both players later said during their press conferences that the end time was too late. Furthermore, public transport in Paris ends around midnight which makes it a logistical nightmare for some fans trying to get home at a time later than this time.
