Following the trend of previous fortnights, evening sessions at Roland-Garros have been reserved for men for the time being since the start of the tournament.
Wednesday evening, when the organizers of Roland-Garros learned of Gael Monfils’ package, they immediately moved Alexander Zverev’s match to the evening session on Thursday’s program. After Sinner-Muller, Monfils-Baez and Djokovic-Fucsovics, this is the fourth men’s meeting in four night-sessions since the start of the tournament, and it has been a recurring controversy since Roland-Garros set up these night-time meetings. .
American Sloane Stephens was asked about it. “I prefer not to answer” she reacted, before all the same to comply, after a reminder from the journalist. “I’m on the players’ council, and we’ve had a lot of conversations about these things, about gender equality. Clearly, with four out of four men’s matches, that’s not what we were talking about. There is nothing more to say. »
The subject is delicate for the organizers. Evening sessions are subject to specific ticketing. In other words, spectators pay for a single match. They must therefore be satisfied, and also satisfy the broadcaster, Prime Video, which acquired the rights to these meetings for a nice check. It is easier to give everyone their money’s worth by offering them a men’s match, best of five sets, rather than a women’s match which can be folded in two sets. Last year, only the world No. 1 Iga Swiatek had been scheduled in the evening, out of the eight night-sessions that had taken place.
