French Open: 'More appeal for men's matches'- Amelie Mauresmo on night match scheduling
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Updated 01/06/2022 at 15:38 GMT
French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo says there have been fewer women's night matches at Roland-Garros this year because she deemed the men's equivalents more appealing. Mauresmo admitted it had been tough to find the right match-up or star to fit into the one-match slot, which has caused controversy itself with its late finishes.
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French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo says there has only been one women's night match at the event so far because men's matches have more appeal.
Mauresmo was appointed into the prestigious role at Roland-Garros last year, and is overseeing her first edition this year.
But there have been some questions around the night session, which features just one match and has seen some very late finishes.
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic's quarter-final didn't finish until gone 1am local time on Wednesday morning, leaving fans scrambling for transport home, and more generally the move has prompted responses among players in terms of the weather and recovery differences when compared to day matches.
Now Mauresmo has been asked why women had only featured in one of the 10 night-match slots.
She said: “In this era that we are in, I don't feel bad or unfair - as a woman and former women's player - saying that right now you have more appeal [in] general, for the men's matches.
"My goal when I was doing the schedule every day was to try and see, from the first round when the draw came out, which women's match I could put there, honestly.
"The confrontation or the star that I could put there. You have all those parameters.
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"So that was tough. Honestly, I did really consider every day - not every day, that would be wrong - but most of the days, trying to see, and all the team, we were really focusing on this most of the time.
"But yes, I admit it was tough. It was tough for more than one night to find, as you say, the match of the day.
"When you have this it's an interesting one because the fact that it's right now a one-match night session is tough on this. It is tough."
Mauresmo also said that this year no provision had been made for the late departure of spectators from the Roland-Garros site.
She said: "That's actually a key issue that needs to be settled, and that will be one of our priorities in the future.
"We haven't planned anything yet, but obviously we need to organise ourselves differently with the Department of Transport of Paris with bus systems, with the underground system.
"If we continue with these night sessions in this direction, people need to leave the stadium late enough and make sure that they have a way to come back home, as they should.
"We do not have the means to organise this for 15,000 people yet. For the moment, there is nothing."
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