"At what point does the meandering WTA intervene?" - Tennis fans infuriated as French Open continues ignoring women's matches for night sessions

There is growing attention being drawn to the scheduling of the 2023 French Open once again, particularly regarding the night sessions, which have thus far exclusively featured men's matches.

The issue is not new; in fact, it has been a recurring concern in the French Open's scheduling decisions. The introduction of night session matches at the claycourt Major in 2022 sparked global criticism due to the lack of representation of women's matches. Out of the 10 matches scheduled under the lights in the main stadium last year, only one featured a women's match.

The issue persists in this year's edition of the Grand Slam tournament as well, with all four of the night sessions exclusively featuring men's matches. Even on the fifth day, the night session will only include the third-round match between Carlos Alcaraz and Denis Shapovalov, with no slot being allocated for a women's match.

This incident understandably left tennis fans displeased, and they turned to Twitter to express their frustration. One user questioned when the WTA would take action to address the disparity, writing:

"Alcaraz vs Shapovalov the night match tomorrow. 5-0 now to the men's draw. At what point does the meandering WTA intervene?"

Journalist Ben Rothenberg argued that as long as women players are not included in the night sessions, they win by not participating but lose with the false notion of being considered.

"I think the women win by not getting it, but lose with this dumb pretense that they’re being considered but getting passed over daily. Should just formally be a men’s session at this point," he wrote.

Here are a few more reactions from tennis fans to the French Open continuously ignoring women's matches for night sessions:

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French Open director Amelie Mauresmo justifies prime-time slots for men's matches

French Open director Amelie Mauresmo recently stated that her priority to achieve equality was to have two women's and two men's matches on each court every day.

"Some people asked me before this edition, 'So, are you going to do five men’s matches and five women’s matches (during the night sessions)?' I don’t know. For me the priority in equality is definitely to have two women and two men on each court every day," Mauresmo said in an interview with Telegraph.

She then spoke about the difficulty in scheduling night matches, before emphasizing the importance of selecting the best match of the day for a large number of ticket holders.

"We are a unique example of only one match scheduled in the evening, it makes it quite difficult to know in advance. It's a tough one. There is no perfect solution here," she said.

"We have 15,000 people buying tickets for that match for 10 days so I’m really thinking about what would be the best match of the day. I cannot think at the moment differently on that. But other than that, I believe we are quite equal in pretty much everything that we do," she added.