WTA Tour meets with French Open organizers over lack of women’s matches in night sessions
PARIS — After two years without a women’s match in a French Open night session, despite lobbying from broadcasters and some players, WTA Chair Valerie Camillo became the latest stakeholder to directly advocate for scheduling women’s matches in primetime at Roland Garros.
Camillo, who was hired in late October to head the women’s tour, had a meeting with French Open organizers, including tournament director Amélie Mauresmo, in the days before the main draw began.
In a statement sent to The Athletic, the WTA said Camillo requested the meeting during her regular travel to the tournament “to discuss the extraordinary level of competition and excitement across the women’s game this season.”
“The two (Camillo and Mauresmo) met and held an open and productive conversation. During the meeting, Valerie raised the scheduling of women’s matches in the tournament’s night sessions. Over the past five years, four of the 50 night-session matches at Roland-Garros have featured women, including none in 2024 or 2025.”
The French Tennis Federation (FFT) did not respond to a request for comment about the meeting.
The scheduling of women’s matches has long been an issue at Roland Garros, which since the introduction of a night session in 2021 has scheduled just four of them in that slot, effectively shutting women out of primetime of what the tournament bills as “one great match” per day.
The most recent women’s match featured on Court Philippe-Chatrier at night was in 2023, between Sloane Stephens and Aryna Sabalenka.
In news conferences across the past several tournaments, Mauresmo has said that her reason for almost exclusively scheduling men’s matches at night centers around quantity, not quality of play. Men’s matches are best-of-five sets at Grand Slams, while women’s matches are best-of-three, meaning, hypothetically, viewers at home and in person hypothetically get more bang for their buck if the match goes longer. Women’s matches can stretch to nearly three hours; men’s matches can take just 90 minutes.
Women players also face a double dose of inequality at Roland Garros, where they frequently open play on the tournament’s main show court, Philippe-Chatrier. The session begins at noon, which is routinely the time of day the stadium is at its emptiest. That affects both the in-person atmosphere for the players and the quality of the television product for viewers at home.
The French Open has stood firm on its decision to schedule men’s matches at night despite past requests from stakeholders.
Last year, the tournament’s broadcasting partner in France, Amazon Prime, asked the tournament to schedule unheralded breakout Lois Boisson’s fourth-round match against Jessica Pegula in a night session, which the tournament declined. Tennis Channel executives also lobbied for putting women’s matches in the night session when it was the U.S. broadcast partner, before the tournament moved to TNT / HBO Max.
The tournament looks particularly stubborn in its scheduling ethos this year considering how lopsided the volume of storylines in the women’s draw is compared to the men’s. Because of Carlos Alcaraz’s absence, injuries to several other star men’s players, Gael Monfils’ loss in the first round and a lack of legitimate challengers for title favorite Jannik Sinner, there aren’t many options of well-known men’s players to schedule at night.
Still, the French Open forged ahead. On Thursday in Paris, No. 22 seed Arthur Rinderknech will face former Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini at night on Chatrier. Four-time Grand Slam champion Aryna Sabalenka, fellow four-time champion Naomi Osaka and French Open defending champion Coco Gauff will all play their second-round matches during the day.