The noise is unlikely to go away this year, as the first three night matches scheduled on Philippe-Chatrier have been men's matches, despite Frenchwoman and fifth seed Caroline Garcia playing her opening round on Monday. She even had to apologise for saying the men's matches had 'more attraction' in this era of tennis than women's. Mauresmo, 43, courted heavy criticism during her debut year as tournament director for scheduling men's matches for nine out of 10 night sessions on the main show court in Paris. It would go through a different process of several years, maybe you start with the final.' Gender equality on show courts is 'tough' Because it asks a different preparation from the players.

The thing is, you cannot change it just like that. There was a brief period during the 1990s when women played the longer format in the final of the WTA tour-end event.Īsked about the feasibility of introducing longer matches from the quarter-finals onwards at Roland Garros, Mauresmo said it would need to be phased into the women's tournament over a few years. 'That is something that I would have really loved, and it’s definitely something that I would really think about, if that would add something to women’s tennis.'Ĭurrently the women play best-of-three sets at all of the major events, while the men play best-of-five. 'What I’ve always thought, and this was also as a player, I would love to play a grand-slam final best-of-five or how it was at the year-end WTA championships,' she said. With one edition now under her belt, the former Wimbledon champion told Telegraph Sport that she felt 'more prepared, relaxed and knowing exactly where I want the tournament to go' – and that could include a drastic change to the format for the women's event.Īlthough she says best-of-five sets would not work for the entire women's tournament, due to scheduling restrictions on site, she believes it could happen for the latter stages. Last year Mauresmo became the first former grand slam champion to take on a directorial role at a major event, and is also the first woman to do so at the French Open. Amelie Mauresmo, tournament director at Roland Garros, would 'love' to change the women's final to best-of-five sets.

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