Rennae Stubbs left stunned by French Open tournament director's comments, 'it is shocking to me'

The French Open has stormed into its second week, with many star names remaining in the competition.

But it certainly hasn’t been without controversy, with scheduling complaints having been a common theme at the Grand Slam.

Jessica Pegula agreed with Ons Jabeur that female players deserve more attention, with women having been constantly overlooked for the night matches at this year’s French Open.

Instead male players have dominated the spots on Court Philippe-Chatrier, with the ATP Tour involving best-of-five set matches compared to best-of-three on the WTA Tour.

Tournament director Amelie Mauresmo, a former world number one, has since responded to the criticism.

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Amelie Mauresmo explains French Open night match scheduling

Mauresmo said in a press conference earlier at the tournament: “For me, the message that I always said, and I will repeat, as I said, the conditions did not change from having one unique match in the evening.

“So for me, the message is not changing, and it has never been that the girls are not worthy to play at night. It’s never been this, and I will not accept that you carry this message, that’s really clear to me.

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“What I’m saying is I’m talking, and we are talking, because I’m not the only one to make the decisions, we are talking about potential match length.

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“And in this perspective, it is hard to say that the two sets can go really fast when the three sets… you have three sets minimum.

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“So it’s, I don’t know, one-hour-and-a-half, two hours, maybe more, I don’t know. For me that’s the length of the matches.

“It’s not how they play, it’s not the level they reach right now, especially right now. I’m not talking about this.”

Rennae Stubbs reacts to ‘shocking’ French Open decision involving female players

It is a real shame that female players are not getting the recognition they deserve at the French Open, which is one of the four Grand Slams in the tennis calendar.

There have been plenty of exciting WTA match-ups in Paris this time around, including Iga Swiatek versus Elena Rybakina and Naomi Osaka versus Paula Badosa among many others.

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Another former player in Rennae Stubbs has now shared her verdict on the decision, having been left shocked by the entire situation.

She said of Mauresmo on The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast: “She has not put a women’s match on at night.

“The complaint is that the women’s is best-of-three, it could be an hour and people aren’t getting what they want.

“Well, then put two matches on at night. Start it at 5pm. It’s not brain surgery here and the fact you have not played one women’s match, and we have had great women’s names playing against each other. It is shocking to me that she doesn’t understand how bad that looks.

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“The Badosa versus Osaka match should have been at night. That was a great match to have at night. Two very well known players, you would argue it was going to be a pretty competitive match, both were playing well and it was.

“You could argue [Jannik] Sinner won 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 (against Jiri Lehecka). If that was at night it still would have been really boring.”

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