“Next year, with the aim of being fairer to the players, we will try to find a better solution,” commented the director of Roland Garros, Amélie Mauresmo, taking stock a year ago. However, it happens again. There is no correction or patch. When the sun goes down in Paris and the spotlights on the center court come on, the light shines on them, the players. Yes, in masculine. As in the previous edition, the facts speak clearly and underline the asymmetry: of the ten games scheduled for the night session, in prime time, nine have corresponded to the men’s draw and only one to the women’s. The imbalance squeaks again and criticism intensifies, no matter how much the organization tries to argue.
“I would prefer not to answer…”, says the American Sloane Stephens with resignation, already eliminated, protagonist of the only battle between two women this year together with the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka. “I’m on the Player Council and we’ve had a lot of conversations about equality. I don’t know how many times I’ve played here, but I’ve never played at night and no one [de la dirección] He has asked my opinion. It’s their tournament, so they do what they want; we should not lecture them on what to do or not to do. I think the data speaks for itself. It is what it is, and they are not going to change it. We can’t do anything”, laments the American, winner of a big one and who synthesizes the general feeling of the WTA locker room.
Meanwhile, Mauresmo and his team argue that the room for maneuver is very limited. The director – in charge since last year, taking over from Guy Forget – exposes that there are several determining factors and that, although this time she has not verbalized it, the audience rules and men’s tennis attracts more attention. That is to say, the feminine “is less attractive”, she expressed in 2022, raising a great deal of dust. “My comments were taken out of context,” the Frenchwoman, double Grand Slam champion and number one in 2004, “firm defender,” she says, “of women’s rights, in general,” came to the crossroads. But she came to influence some statements that she made to L’Equipe in 2016, when he pointed out that the game played by men was “more attractive” by having Nadal, Federer and Djokovic, and that “there was no debate”.
This edition, Roland Garros has brought forward the night sessions –from 9:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.– with the aim of avoiding the delays of other years, when the day lasted until dawn. Unlike the Australian Open and the US Open, which include two night matches in the session whore, one male and one female, the great Parisian sets only one and four are disputed every day in the central, in total; two for men and two for women. “In Paris, people leave work quite late, so having them seated at half past seven in the stadium is quite a challenge, so we wanted to solve that problem. We don’t want to finish at three in the morning. It’s not ideal, but that’s why we don’t want to have two games. It is not easy to choose, you have to take into account many things, “said Mauresmo recently in Eurosport.
change mindset
In March, the boss of the body that governs the women’s circuit, Steve Simon, already sent a message to the leader. “At the end of the day, you are what you say you are. Unless you show the product during prime time, you are telling the consumer what its value is; therefore, it is very important that there is a mix of men and women in that strip”, declared the American to the BBC. Despite the demand, nothing has changed in Paris, where this Wednesday the tenth anniversary of the formalization of gay marriage is celebrated – a celebration to which the tournament officially joins – and where the gap points to Mauresmo, who on the other hand has always denounced that “society remains and always will be sexist, globally”, and that seven years ago she formed a pioneering bond with Scotsman Andy Murray, becoming the first woman to coach a male figure in tennis.
“With the schedules, they continue to treat us like second-class citizens,” denounces the historic Billie Jean King, the great activist icon of the racket. “It’s stupid, that’s what it is. I think the match I’ve played has been great, and we have great players. Many women’s matches are fantastic; We played very well too, and that’s it. It’s a tournament for everyone, isn’t it? Men and women”, replied the Serbian Olga Danilovic angrily after falling last Saturday against the Tunisian Ons Jabeur, equally forceful in the claim. “It was about time that it was our turn,” claimed the African, who delved into the underlying issue: “It is time that we change our vision of all this. People judge without seeing, they directly say that our parties are shit without even seeing them, and it is not like that. There are extraordinary games. Women make a great effort every day, many sacrifices that men do not have to make. Sometimes I ask: Have you seen any? And they answer me no. How can you judge without seeing? We must change our mindset.”
There is noise, but there is no turning. ”We will consider putting on two games, or one for women and another for doubles. We must take into account the duration, people pay a ticket”, Mauresmo argued a year ago, reasoning that the price of the night session, higher, requires a more extensive menu for the fan than that of a match between girls, more shorter than those of the boys, who play five sets instead of three. In any case, for the Sabalenka-Stephens on Sunday all the paper was sold and the stands ended up filling up, despite the fact that a considerable number of tickets had been returned the previous afternoon when the agenda was announced. “I did not expect so many people, it has been magnificent”, the first thanked; “I felt like it was a final, everyone was enjoying it”. The director, meanwhile, is still in her thirteenth.
THE OPPOSITE SIDE: CONTRAINDICATIONS
AC | Paris
Although the prime time has a hierarchical component and increases or decreases the status of the players, the vast majority of professionals prefer to compete during the daytime slot. Staying up all night implies a modification of the routine and adapting biorhythms, as well as knowing how to manage the nervousness inherent in the preamble to matches. But not only that. It also means extra fatigue having to go to bed at dawn, since after playing they have to slow down, return the body to calm and complete the nutritional section, if not do some kind of treatment.
In that sense, these days the young Coco Gauff was speaking. “I guess for TV it’s the most important thing, but it really sucks,” the 19-year-old American says openly. “All the players I’ve spoken to have told me they don’t want to play at night; In that sense, I’m glad that they give priority to men, but at the same time that sucks”, repeats the North American.
Carlos Alcaraz, without going any further, prefers to compete during the day and last year he already raised his voice when the Roland Garros organization scheduled two of his matches at night, in a row. “It wouldn’t seem fair to me. It doesn’t bother me, but you have less time to rest and you finish everything very late; Even if you finish at twelve, then you have to have dinner, the physio… and you don’t fall asleep the same way because of the adrenaline of the game, ”he said.
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