Aryna Sabalenka and Naomi Osaka are set to contest the first women’s night session match at the French Open for the first time in over three years.
One-match night sessions were introduced in 2021, and since then, only four night session matches have been women’s singles contests.
Sabalenka and Osaka will contest the fifth on Monday night; a sensible decision from any perspective.
Can anyone realistically stop Aryna Sabalenka from going ‘all the way’ at Roland Garros this year? 🏆
Elina Svitolina, a contender for the Roland Garros title, has since reacted to the news of Sabalenka and Osaka’s match being scheduled for the night session.
Elina Svitolina says Aryna Sabalenka vs Naomi Osaka being scheduled for night session represents an ‘important step for women’s tennis’
Svitolina, who defeated Belinda Bencic 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 on Sunday afternoon, offered her perspective on the scheduling matter while speaking to reporters in Paris.
“Yeah, I think it’s great,” Svitolina said during her post-match press conference.
“The matchup as well I think is exciting for the tournament – for the people to witness the women’s match.
“Of course, it’s an important step for women’s tennis, and yeah, I think it’s a good move forward.”
When analysing the matter at hand, one can only come to the conclusion that this move that has been made far too late by Roland Garros decision makers.
As mentioned already, Osaka and Sabalenka’s match will be only the fifth women’s singles night session match in over three years.
Simply put, this is a startling figure.
The night session is the showpiece scheduling slot of the Roland Garros schedule, and female players have clearly been overlooked for that slot for far too long.
Female players need to be playing in that slot on a regular basis, and one hopes that Roland Garros organisers will take note of the recent disparity and make the necessary changes moving forward.
The last women’s night session at Roland Garros
Aryna Sabalenka was involved in the last Roland Garros women’s singles match that took place during the night session.
Sabalenka, seeded second at the event, defeated former Roland Garros finalist Sloane Stephens in the fourth round.
“It’s a good match to play on the clay court,” Sabalenka said after her 6-4, 7-6 victory, as per the WTA.
“It’s a good preparation. If you can get through this match, you can get through whatever happens to you, you know. Like, it was a really tough, tough match.
“A lot of balls coming back. It wasn’t easy to finish the point. So I always had to find this perfect shot to finish it, and that was tricky.”
Sabalenka went on to reach the semi-finals, before losing to Karolina Muchova.
Muchova, who was unseeded, was defeated in the final by Iga Swiatek.
