2023-06-04 02:29:02
Welcome women. This Sunday, for the first time in the fortnight, a female poster will have the honors of the night session on the Central. World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka and American Sloane Stephens, quarter-finalist last year, have an appointment from 8:30 p.m. for a tantalizing round of 16. One of the rare incursions of the players in a time slot essentially devoted to the men’s table.
In 2022, to the chagrin of defenders of parity, only one “night session” out of ten concerned residents of the WTA (Cornet-Ostapenko in the 2nd round). “It would be a mistake to give quotas, had warned the director of Roland-Garros Amélie Mauresmo, to cut short any controversy. Basically, the sessions are mixed, so we have the possibility to choose. I do not forbid myself anything in the programming, it is the table that guides us in decision-making. »
A few months ago, however, the Ethics Committee of the FFT had pointed out a big concern for fairness and heard “the sincere desire of the tournament management to improve the balance between men and women. On arrival, there is no question of making positive discrimination to stick to the times.
The size of the stakes and the reality of the game take precedence. “There are always people who will attack on this subject, confides Guy Forget, who occupied the chair of Mauresmo from 2016 to 2021 and now spends his late afternoons on Amazon Prime. But it’s a very bad trial, because you can’t have parity. The only thing to say is that there will be two women’s matches and two men’s matches per day on the Central. Point. »
“The concern is that we are in an era of political correctness”
Whether vis-à-vis the broadcaster (who weighs on the choice of the match) or the spectators, everyone must get their money’s worth. “Put yourself in the place of the couple with two children who comes from Lyon for a night out, continues the former captain of the France Davis Cup team. They take the TGV, one night in a hotel, four places… and it lasts forty minutes because a girl wins 6-0, 6-1. It cost him 1,000 and a few euros… In football, at least, we know that we take 90 minutes. The concern is that we are in an era of political correctness, so it becomes problematic. »
Many fans, who inevitably bought their tickets blind a few months ago, seem to have been panicked by the prospect of a one-sided or uninteresting match. On Saturday afternoon, on the official resale platform, it was indeed possible to find places in just about every category in just one click…
As it stands, the equation is unsolvable. Except to align with the Australian Open and the US Open, which offer a meeting of each table every evening. But that amounts to shifting the problem to match points at the end of the night. “So we just have to play the women in five sets, I’m against it, or have the men play in two winning sets in the first rounds, dares Forget. But from the moment there is a disparity over time…”
In the ranks of the WTA, it rattles a little. We would like better exposure and we sweep away the argument of stars less attractive than Djokovic, Alcaraz, Zverev, Sinner or Monfils, who have paraded since May 29. “I hope we can correct this, that we can have a schedule of women’s matches, because I think we can also have breathtaking matches in the evening with the women,” sighs American Jessica Pegula, No. 3 in the WTA.
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek prefers daytime play
“It would be nice, of course, to have night matches with women, but I’m not helping the cause because personally I’m not asking to be scheduled at night,” explains Iga Swiatek, the boss of the circuit. feminine. That’s good. Saturday afternoon, the world No. 1 atomized the Chinese Wang in the 3rd round (6-0, 6-0 in 51 minutes). With the Polonaise, the risk is very high of having finished the so-called night session even before nightfall…
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