Ons Jabeur has criticized the lack of female night session matches at Roland Garros.
It comes as Wednesday will see the last night session match of this year’s Roland Garros, which has seen all eleven matches be male matches.
Furthermore over the last few days, the first two matches on Philippe Chatrier have been female matches.
Ons Jabeur played her Roland Garros quarter-final against Coco Gauff first on Philippe Chatrier at 11am local time.
Speaking after her elimination to the US Open champion Jabeur stated the decision to have the women’s matches at 11am didn’t make sense and called the late night finishes unhealthy, “I would have loved a quarterfinal at night, not at 11:00 a.m. For me, doesn’t make sense,” Jabeur explained.
“As you said, 10 night matches without any women playing. I don’t expect any women to play in the evening, but frankly, playing a quarterfinal at 11:00 a.m. is really such a chore. We deserve to be here.
“Maybe this is the only Grand Slam and maybe Australian Open they play quarterfinals at 11:00 a.m., which for me, I don’t find it’s… you know, I don’t know the broadcasts. I don’t know the TV, but yeah, you achieve a quarterfinal. You have it’s, like, no, you play at 11:00. Anyways, I talked about the night matches. Honestly, I wish I can see the contract time between both Prime and here to know what’s the deal there.
“You know, there was a lot of good woman’s matches. Obviously not four hours, but who said it’s healthy to play past 1:00 a.m., and who said the stadium was full for 1:00 a.m. or 2:00 a.m.? I don’t know who is watching the matches at that time. Again, I would suggest to start earlier and then put nice matches on both sides. It’s not healthy also for players to play past, I don’t know, 11:00 or midnight.
“We are still talking about this here. Even for you, the journalists, I don’t think it’s healthy to have these night matches. It’s for everybody I’m speaking. We have to find a way out so that everybody is happy: the players, the journalists, the full team. The ballkids are young and they’re still on the courts when it’s really late. I don’t know if it’s logical to have all that.”
The late nights have been a big debate at Roland Garros but there has been no such discussion on the mistreatment of the women’s matches.
So far there has been no comment from Roland Garros as the top WTA players will hope for better treatment in the future.
As for Jabeur she will now head to the grass court season where she will look to go one better than last year and that is to achieve her Grand Slam dream at Wimbledon.
Speaking after her Roland Garros exit Jabeur spoke about her grass court preparations which involve competing in Nottingham, “Definitely physically, I’ve got to say,” the Tunisian stated when asked about if she’s ready for the grass court swing.
“When you play on the clay, physically you’re always ready to be ready on the grass. I’m trying to enjoy my time. I’m playing different. tournaments this year. Hopefully I will be present in Nottingham. No rain hopefully in there.
“But I’m looking forward to play as many matches as I can on grass, because I really love that surface.”
Nottingham starts on Monday with Katie Boulter being the defending champion.
