2023-06-06 16:40:00
Sunday, the only women’s match of the tournament at night did not attract crowds. And even gave rise to a dazzling resale of tickets.
Par Gabriel Attal
© EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP
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Lhe men’s “night sessions” followed one another during the first week of this 122e edition of Roland-Garros. But when would a women’s match have the merit of the night session? It was done this Sunday, June 4th. Aryna Sabalenka and Sloane Stephens faced off on the Philippe-Chatrier court at 8 p.m. The decision of the organizers was not to everyone’s taste: as soon as the news was announced the evening before, many ticket holders for the match rushed to the official resale platform.
No less than two hundred places, in particular in category 1 (145 euros) and category 2 (110 euros), were still available on Sunday a few hours before the meeting. Since the introduction of night sessions, four matches in the women’s draw have been scheduled (Serena Williams-Begu and Swiatek-Kostyuk in 2021, Cornet-Ostapenko last year and, therefore, Sabalenka-Stephens this year).
READ ALSORoland-Garros: Yannick Noah, 40 years old alreadyIn reaction to the rapid and massive resales, 22-year-old Serbian player Olga Danilovic said: “I only have one thing to say, it’s stupid. We play great tennis, I think my game was great today, like so many women’s games. We have a great Top 10, Top 20, Top 100 on the women’s circuit, and it’s good that the organizers are finally programming a women’s match in the evening. »
” It was time… “
The “night session” is not therefore unanimous among the players. Poland’s Iga Swiatek, world number one, who was applying for an evening match on Saturday, repeated at a press conference two days earlier her attachment to a daytime session: “There are players who like the energy of the evening , who like to play in the evening because of the conditions it offers. Me, I prefer to have a real daytime rhythm and I lost it in Madrid. I asked every day personally to play daytime. I have already played in the night session during the clay court season and I did not like it too much. I don’t even watch games at night, actually. I just try to recover and not think about tennis. It would be nice, of course, to have night matches with women, but I’m not helping the cause much. »
The Tunisian Ons Jabeur, world number seven, qualified for the quarter-finals of the tournament, showed her enthusiasm: “It was time to put a women’s match in “night session”. It’s a bit weird that there aren’t both men’s and women’s matches. All the other Grand Slams do. I played super late in Australia and at the US Open. It’s not necessarily a good thing, but that’s what we were doing. Maybe we should start a “night session” a little earlier for the two matches to take place. I understand that with the guys, who can play five sets, it can be difficult, but we have done it in the other Grand Slams. I don’t know why only men’s matches have been scheduled for these first eight days. »
Longer matches
The tournament director, Amélie Mauresmo, defends the choice to schedule a single women’s match in the “night session”: “The situation is very different from that of the US Open and the Australian Open. We talked a lot about the possibility of having two matches, there was a debate about the men’s matches versus the women’s matches in the evening. There are several things I wanted to avoid. I don’t think the audience is in their place at 7 p.m. In Paris, people leave work quite late, so getting them seated at 7:30 p.m. in the stadium is a real challenge. »
READ ALSORoland-Garros: the reasons for the French massacreAnd if there were two matches at night, they would end particularly late. Because matches on clay generally last longer than on other surfaces. “If we put five games for the day and night sessions, we don’t want to finish at 3 a.m. like it happens elsewhere. In addition, we always keep two women’s matches and two men’s matches on the Chatrier court, which is very important for us”, underlines Amélie Mauresmo. The “night session” will continue to be debated and the organizers will have to find a solution to satisfy players and fans of the little yellow ball as much as possible.
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