Amelie Mauresmo, a former No. 1 player and French Open’s first female tournament director, stirred controversy by saying that women’s tennis has less “appeal” than men’s. She made the remarks when asked about the scheduling of matches. This year’s French Open began on May 22 and only one of the 10-night sessions featured a women’s match.

When asked about the decision-making process, Mauresmo said that having just one match in each night session made it “more difficult to have” that be a women’s match. 

“In this era that we are in right now, I don’t feel — and as a woman, former women’s player, I don’t feel bad or unfair saying that, right now — you have more … appeal,” Mauresmo said. “That’s the general (reason) for the men’s matches.”

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She also said that she tried on a daily basis to find a women’s pairing that had the star power worthy of being highlighted in a separate session.

“My goal was, when I was doing the schedule every day, to try and see, from the first round, when the draw came out … ‘what match in the woman’s draw can I put there?’ honestly.”

“I feel that next year, in order to be able to be more fair to the women’s player, as well as to both categories, actually, it would be good to, maybe, have the possibility to put two matches, or maybe a women’s match plus a doubles match. Try to find a better solution to be fair to everyone,” she added.

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Her remarks drew criticism from current No. 1-ranked woman, Iga Swiatek, who said that she found Mauresmo’s comments “a little bit disappointing and surprising.”

“It’s kind of the personal opinion of every person if they like men’s tennis or women’s tennis more or if they like them equally, but I think women’s tennis has a lot of advantages,” said Swiatek, the 2020 French Open champion, who has won 33 matches in a row.

“And some may say that it’s unpredictable and girls are not consistent. But on the other hand, it may also be something that is really appealing and it may really attract more people.”

American tennis star Jessica Pegula also expressed her disappointment saying, “You know, I don’t know. Yeah, I guess it’s always just – I guess it’s disapppointing. It’s not something you want to hear. I think at the same time we need to have chances to have really good matches to show that it is a good product as well.”

Following the backlash, Mauresmo issued an apology saying, “First of all, the comments that I made were taken out of the wider picture, out of the context. And I want to say sorry to the players that really felt bad about what I said.”

“Concerning the scheduling, specifically for the night matches, my say was that because we have one match only and it’s really tougher to schedule a woman’s match because we have to take into consideration the length. It’s the fair thing to do for the ticketholders,” she added.