Amelie Mauresmo is one of tennis’ more polarising figures, made even more so when the spotlight is shone on her Roland Garros event.
For two weeks a year, the tennis world is fully focused on Paris, as the world’s top players once again bid to write their names in the history books.
This year, it was Mirra Andreeva and Alexander Zverev, capping off what was a crazy event laden with unexpected surprises.
However, despite this being a tournament unlike any other, for Mauresmo, she was forced to tread old ground, once again defending the decision to rarely schedule women on the Philippe Chatrier night session.
Amelie Mauresmo responds to more criticism over the Roland Garros night sessions
This is a controversy that has been ongoing for years now, and only grows with each passing year.
After all, the longer they continue this inexplicable trend, the more the questions mount.
How do you feel about more women’s matches being put on the night session now?
This year saw Naomi Osaka and Aryna Sabalenka play in the night session, in an unprecedented change, the first women’s match in that slot in three years.
However, that was again the only WTA clash to take up that prime time.
Asked whether her insistence on ignoring women’s matches for the night session is damaging for the women’s game, Mauresmo has insisted: “I would like to remind you also, and I’m doing this probably every year, that two women’s matches and two men’s matches are happening on Centre Court, on Philippe Chatrier and on Suzanne Lenglen, and all of the other courts that we have, including our big courts every day.
“Just to let you know, in France, the biggest audience is not the night session. By far, it’s the day sessions.
“So I mean, we’re going to continue to try to satisfy as many people as possible, with many factors that we have to put together before making the scheduling decision every day, day or night. And as I said, the length or potential length of match is one of the factors that we have to acknowledge also.”
Roland Garros in discussions to put night session matches on Court Suzanne Lenglen
Following on from this debate, Mauresmo discussed the possibility of expanding the Roland Garros night sessions beyond just Philippe Chatrier, their centre court.
After all, Court Suzanne Lenglen represents an outstanding facility more than capable of generating a similar atmosphere under floodlights.
How many more Grand Slams does Alexander Zverev win now?
What a final!
Asked about whether they had considered adding this to their schedule, the tournament director admitted: “We also are having these possibilities.
“When we talk about this internally, we face a little bit of an issue, given the size of overall stadium and the capacity to get more people in, because it would mean another 5,000, 8,000, 10,000 people and all the facilities.
“As of today, it’s not expandable for now, so. Yeah, every year we challenge these issues.”
