Dispute to Roland Garros 2025: Why didn’t women play a single evening match?

Paris. And we had it here again. Evening program at the second Grand Slam event events of the season Roland Garrosso -called. Night Sessions, this year, became exclusively a male matter. Neither of the exclusive evening matches belonged to women.

While elite tennis players like Ons Jabeur or Aryna Sabalenková are talking about disrespect, the tournament management is defending economic arguments. However, the facts that put the official version on their heads came to the surface.

And all this was shuffled by the well -known coach Patrick Mouratogla with a theory that has attracted considerable attention in the tennis world.

The loud criticism of the absence of women’s matches in the evening program and the main broadcast time for Roland Garros is not something new, but this year has reached the boiling point.

Again, the players and part of the fans have spoken and point to the persistent inequality in tennis.

Why is the Paris Grand Slam tournament as the only one of the four to hold a format that systematically disadvantages women?

Video: Aryna Sabalenkova – Coco Gauffova in the final Roland Garros 2025

Mauresm: Value for money

The director of the tournament and the former world unit Amelia Mauresm faces criticism with an explanation that seems logical at first glance.

The evening program for Roland Garros, broadcast exclusively on the Amazon Prime Video platform, offers only one match.

The viewer, who buys an expensive ticket, expects « value for the money ». This is said to be the certainty of a longer match guaranteed by a male match that is played for three winning sets.

« Women’s matches could end up quickly and put an additional match in the night block would not be feasible, » Mauresm said.

However, this argument was given a crack. According to The Athletic portal, the organizers of Roland Garros reportedly refused the request of Amazon Prime to deploy a women’s match with home Lois Boisson in the evening program.

The French tennis federation (FFT) refused to comment on this particular situation.

This information suggests that the decision to prefer men’s matches does not have to be based on the broadcaster, but directly from the organizers.

Voice to defend the organizers

He entered the already already tense atmosphere with the power of his own reputable coach Patrick Mouratogla. On the contrary, he stood up and described the players as unfair.

His most controversial argument? Contemporary female tennis lacks the global superstar format of Serena Williams. Serena was in 2021 one of the few women who appeared in the evening.

« It’s unfair because Iga Swiatte and Aryna Sabalenkova are not Serena Williams. Why was Serena in Night Session? Because she’s Serena. It will attract everyone, » he said Mouratoglou.

He added that it is actually more convenient for players to play during the day on the main station of French television, which has a greater impact than the paid night zone of Amazon.

Critics of this point of view may argue that stars become stars precisely because they get space in the main broadcast time.

To deny them this option and then complain about the lack of superstars is a paradox.

Similarly, this view partially narrows the value of the whole sport to a single generation star, while making it easier to do the top quality offered by other players.

The voice of the players

Even the actors did not hide the disappointment.

« It’s a bit ironic. They do not practically show women’s sport or specifically female tennis and then say, ‘People are watching especially men.’ This is clear when they show more. Ons Jabeur, one of the greatest critics.

The world unit Sabalenko agrees: « We deserve the same treatment. We deserve more space, better timing and more people who will follow us. »

Belarus also pointed out the absurd situation when the first matches of the day on the main courts often start in front of half -empty stands.

The attitude of the former unit and the current world seven Iga Swiatek is slightly different.

Video: Aryna Sabalenkova – Coco Gauffova in the final Roland Garros 2025

He personally prefers daily matches for rhythm and regeneration. At the same time, however, fully supports the words of his rival in the fight for the same opportunities.

« Of course, I would like the female tennis to be promoted and was in the right place at the right time. Our game deserves the same exposure, » the Polish star said.

Echoes of the past

The current controversy did not come just suddenly. It is a long -term problem that has been repeated to Roland Garros since the introduction of evening matches in 2021.

Statistics are relentless and reveal systematic disproportion. Of the 52 evening duels, women were given space in only four.

After the last evening meeting of the women in 2023 between Sabalenkova and Sloane Stephens, he was no more.

This creates an apparent double meter. While the male tip generally enjoys the status of stars and the certainty of space in the main time, women seem to be not enough for women.

The requirement for the status of modern Serena Williams is a substance that they do not ask for men.

The numbers don’t lie

In addition, the argument of less commercial attractiveness of women seems to be contrary to solid data.

The WTA Women’s Tennis Association in 2024 announced a record global viewership exceeding 1.1 billion viewers, 10 percent more than the previous 2023 record.

Traffic at tournaments also increased. Women’s tennis is commercially on the rise and its potential is huge.

It goes differently

The management of Roland Garros advocates its approach to the argument that the audience must pay off the ticket. The solution ensuring equality and commercial success exists long ago.

The Australian Open and the US Open choose a proven model of two evening matches, which almost always offers an attractive combination of male and female battles.

This format is popular and guarantees fair space to women in the main time.

However, this approach also has its problems. The US Open is known for extremely long matches ending after midnight, such as last year’s duel between Donna Vekičová and Čeng Čin-Wen, which ended at night at 2.15 am.

The Australian Open occasionally plans two male matches in a row. Nevertheless, their format structurally allows the fair representation of women and flexibility in planning. And this is a fundamental difference from Paris, which makes equality systematically impossible.

Wimbledon, although he does not have the planned night matches for local regulations, shows another approach.

The game under the roof can continue until 23.00, but the aim is to complete the daily program, not to create an exclusive slot.

The common ATP and WTA initiative is trying to limit the ends in the late hours and the Paris start at 20.15 pts, but the core of the problem is in the decision to play only one match.

Paris step back

The debate on the fair deployment of matches thus remains open to Roland Garros. While other Grand Slam tournaments use the format of two evening meetings that allows for regular inclusion of women, the Paris model with one match limits this flexibility.

If the tournament management is adhered to, the equality debates are likely to be repeated annually.

The question does not seem to know whether female tennis is good enough for the evening program. The question is why the tournament management is actively rejecting the format that has proven itself elsewhere in the world and which would end the annual debates on inequality.

It is not a question of necessity, but elections. And this year she sent a very return signal to the world.

The author writes for the portal tbtennis.cz