“Who’s watching tennis at 2am?” Ons Jabeur on Roland-Garros schedule controversy

Leaving aside the rain, the two big issues around the Roland-Garros schedule this year have been the late finishes and the lack of women’s matches in the night session.

And Ons Jabeur had some comments after her defeat in the quarter-final to Coco Gauff – scheduled at 11am.

“I would have loved a quarter-final at night, not at 11am. For me, doesn’t make sense. Maybe this is the only Grand Slam – and maybe Australian Open – they play quarter-finals at 11am, which for me, I don’t find it’s… you know, I don’t know the broadcasts. I don’t know the TV, but yeah, you achieve a quarter-final. You have – it’s like, no, you play at 11.

“Anyways, I talked about the night matches. Honestly, I wish I can see the contract time between both [Amazon] Prime [with whom Roland-Garros have a deal in France] and here to know what’s the deal there. You know, there was a lot of good woman’s matches. Obviously not four hours [in duration], but who said it’s healthy to play past 1am, and who said the stadium was full for 1am or 2am? I don’t know who is watching the matches at that time.

“Again, I would suggest to start earlier and then put nice matches on both sides. It’s not healthy also for players to play past, I don’t know, 11pm or midnight.”

Her quarter-final opponent Gauff had spoken earlier in the tournament about the risks of playing such long matches so late, describing it as “not healthy”.

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