(Paris) Confronted for the first time with the difficulty of programming the matches of a Grand Slam tournament, the new director of Roland-Garros Amélie Mauresmo defended the highlighting of the men’s matches by the greater “attraction” that they were presenting.
Posted at 10:48 a.m.
“In our era, and as a woman, also as a former player, I don’t feel bad or I don’t find it unfair to say that currently there is more attraction for men’s matches”, said the former world No.1.
“My goal when I started day-to-day programming was to try to see, and from the early rounds when the draw fell, what would be the matches in the women’s draw that could be shown in session. by night. You see the oppositions, the confrontations or the stars that could be identified as being in the night session, ”she detailed.
“I admit it, it was difficult to find the match of the day (in the women’s draw) more than once,” she admitted, referring to the only women’s match out of the ten night sessions of the fortnight, 2e round between the French N.1 Alizé Cornet and the 2017 winner Jelena Ostapenko.
“As we only have one match in the night session, it’s difficult to make this choice,” she added, taking the example of the US Open where generally the night session presents a match women’s and a men’s game.
Anyway, the tournament director assumes the programming and the lack of female representation in the evening.
“It’s not a regret given the confrontations we had and what we also wanted to present to spectators who come with a unique match,” she said.
Moreover, of the twenty matches that opened at 11 a.m. – the time when there are generally the least crowds – the day on the Suzanne-Lenglen court, the second largest court at Roland Garros, 18 were women’s draw matches.
“I didn’t know the number. We look at it day by day. It’s interesting to know that. It is a good element to take into account”, commented Mauresmo.