French Open boss put on the spot in ugly row and replies 'change the subject'

tournament director Amelie Mauresmo felt the heat as she was probed over her controversial scheduling decisions in Paris, with no women's matches having been given the primetime night session slot since 2023. The retired former No. 1 was pulled into a passionate row during a press conference on Friday morning and later stated: "I would like to change the subject."

The lack of women in the single-match 8.15pm night session slot over the last two years has been a hot topic, with two-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur among those . But Mauresmo defended the decision and refuted suggestions that she was sending the message that women and girls were not worthy compared to their male peers.

"That's not what we are saying. I have you stop you right there," the tournament boss said when that theory was raised.

"For me, the message that I always said and I will repeat: as I said, the conditions did not change from having one unique match in the evening.

"For me, the message is not changing and it has never been that girls are not worthy to play at night. It's never been this and I will not accept that you carry this message, that's really clear to me.

"What I'm saying is I'm talking and we are talking - because I'm not the only one to make the decisions - about potential match length. In this perspective, it is hard to say that the two sets can go really fast when [if it's a men's match] you have three sets minimum so it's one hour and a half, two hours maybe, I don't know.

"For me, that's the length of the matches. It's not how they play, it's not the level they reach right now. I am not talking about this. That's what you think the message is. That's your interpretation."

One solution, as Coco Gauff suggested, would be to and play one women's match and one men's. Currently, there are three daytime matches, and Mauresmo doesn't want to change that, so a second night game isn't on the cards.

In France, Amazon Prime Video has the rights to broadcast all of the night session matches from Roland Garros, and the deal is set to run through to 2027. But Mauresmo said she was not the only one signing these agreements.

"In my opinion, if we don't want to finish too late, we cannot have the five matches in the day. As I said, for people here in Paris, they come out of work, they usually come here, Roland Garros, 7.30, 8. To hope to try to have a full house in the evening is 8, 8.30, beginning of the night sessions," she explained.

"If we have two matches in the night sessions, it doesn't work in terms of how late the players are going to finish. That's my opinions.

"But if we start earlier, it's going to work in terms of... The stands are going to be empty in most of the first match. In my opinion, that's what we think. So we keep this one match in the evening.

"It's not ideal. We cannot check every box because we have many, many things to think when we are doing these choices."

The two-time Grand Slam winner, who coached Andy Murray in his prime, was also quizzed over the decision to regularly put a women's match first on Chatrier when the stands are often near empty.

But she said she was receiving the "same questions year after year" and noted that Chatrier overall had a 50/50 split with two women's and two men's matches a day.

After repeatedly defending her tournament's scheduling, Mauresmo was asked whether she personally thought it was an issue that the women often played first while the men almost exclusively got night billing, and she replied: "I would like to change the subject. I think I've answered it all."

But there is a glimmer of hope that a women's match could be given the prime position before this year's edition of the French Open is over. "Maybe we talk about it on the last Sunday," Mauresmo noted.

In 2023, Aryna Sabalenka's fourth-round clash with former finalist Sloane Stephens got the evening slot, and she won a tight two-setter 7-6 6-4. Since then, all 20 night matches have been reserved for the men.

Since night sessions were introduced in 2021, only on four occasions have the women been given top billing. It remains to be seen if that changes this year.