PARIS — Scheduling extra evening periods for ladies is proving a troublesome situation to resolve for French Open event director Amélie Mauresmo.
Mauresmo, a two-time Grand Slam winner, was requested at her tournament-ending information convention Sunday if she was comfy with the equality within the scheduling at Roland Garros this 12 months. Only one of many 10 evening periods concerned ladies.
“I’m comfortable with the scheduling on the day, but yes, we can do better on the night matches,” Mauresmo stated. “My point is this year that we put definitely way more woman matches on the prime slots in 2023. It doesn’t make it perfect yet, because of these night matches that are unique.”
Mauresmo was requested about feedback made by American Jessica Pegula, who lamented the dearth of girls’s matches within the evening periods in a web based column Wednesday for British broadcaster BBC.
“Only one of the 10 night sessions featured WTA players – that was when Aryna Sabalenka played Sloane Stephens in the fourth round,” the third-ranked Peugula wrote. “Last year, when there was also only one women’s night match, we spoke to tournament organisers about it. That makes this year more disappointing because we tried to address it. We haven’t seen any improvement.”
Mauresmo, who was briefly ranked No. 1 in her profession, stated she understood Pegula’s frustration but additionally defined that some ladies requested to not play at evening.
“I hear that she’s disappointed with that,” Mauresmo stated. “I just also want to say that some of the high-profile players, that are women’s players I’m talking about, that would be our choices to put in the night matches, are not really keen to go at night and are having different requests.”
Mauresmo pointed to points with timing and late finishes as to why there are usually not two night-session matches – one for males and one for ladies.
“Because when you look at it, a men’s match that goes in straight sets, it’s still around probably between one hour 45, two hours, maybe a bit more,” she stated. “It makes it difficult to schedule something else, in fact … (Because for) the second match, you don’t know when you start and you don’t know especially what time you’re gonna finish. We don’t want the players to finish at 2, 3, 4 in the morning. This is not something we want to see here.”
Night periods began half-hour earlier this 12 months after gamers had complained about going through transport points when there have been late finishes.
“Yes, putting a second women’s match, if we talk about length, why not?” she stated. “But what if the first match then ends up to be two-and-a-half hours? So there is no perfect plan.”
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