PARIS (Reuters) – French Open organisers were again opting to give men prime time billing at the claycourt major, and overlooking women’s matches, as Italian Jannik Sinner’s first round outing was scheduled for Monday’s evening session on Court Philippe Chatrier.
French fifth seed Caroline Garcia’s popularity has grown since she reached the U.S. Open semi-finals last September — hence she seemed to be a prime candidate to be given top billing on the opening night session of this year’s tournament – but officials thought otherwise.
Last year organisers were criticised for scheduling mostly men’s matches in the flagship slot of the day, and earlier this month tournament director Amelie Mauresmo would not commit to putting on more women’s matches during this year’s evening sessions.
The night sessions were brought forward by half an hour for this edition, with the first point expected to be played at 2030 local time (1830GMT).
Organisers were not immediately available for comment.
Sinner, the eighth seed, will face France’s Alexandre Muller while Garcia is up against China’s Wang Xiyu.
Last year only one women’s match took place during the evening session — when Alize Cornet faced Jelena Ostapenko in the second round. The other nine slots taken up by the men.
In France, Amazon’s Prime Video has the exclusive broadcasting rights on the French Open’s night sessions, which run from the first round until the quarter-finals.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; editing by Pritha Sarkar)
