PARIS – France’s open tournament director Amelie Mauremo says he has no plans to change the format of the night match at Roland Garros, but has admitted that the situation is not “ideal” as the male singles match dominates the prime time slots of Philip Chatelier on the court.
Tournament organizers were once again criticised by players this year for their schedule at Roland Garros. Night Match Slots – The separate ticketed event was the only 2025 men’s singles match, following past trends. This has made Ons Jabeur and Coco Gauff one of those people questioning scheduling.
Jills Moreton, president of the French tennis federation, said earlier this week that the option was to “play a better match (in the evening) for the audience.” And Mauresmo has doubled, and the decision on which matches will win the night slot is influenced by expected play time, with men playing best of five sets of matches and three women.
“There’s nothing new in the sun compared to previous editions when it comes to scheduling, night sessions,” Mauresmo said Friday. “There is one match per night, and it hasn’t changed, so we don’t change everything again.
“Play time is also considered, as potential play time is also obviously not possible because it can be planned in advance whether it’s female tennis or male tennis. But we have to consider the 15,000 audience that will come to the night session. Men’s tennis is played in the top five sets, so three sets will play at a minimum.
Mauresmo added that this is not intended to show that women are “not worthy of playing at night.”
One suggestion, including one by Gauff, was to change the night slot to two matches, but Mauresmo shut it down.
Three matches take place in Chattoria during daytime sessions – usually a female single match is held in front of the full stands, followed by a one-night match. The decision that matches will be made in night slots is between the FFT and the broadcaster, but players will also provide preferences.
“We decided to keep three matches that day,” Mauresmo said. “When you play these three matches, the easy way is to play two matches in the evening. After that, there’s none of this conversation.
“But in my opinion, if you don’t want to be too late, you can’t play five games during the day. …If you have two matches in the evening session it doesn’t work in terms of how late the player ends. That’s my opinion.”
Mauresmo said he understands the conflict in the situation.
“That’s not ideal,” she said. “You can’t check every box because there are a lot of things to think about when you’re making these choices.”
