"Iga Swiatek isn't a superstar like Serena Williams" - Patrick Moratoglou defends French Open director Amelie Mauresmo amid schedule drama

Patrick Mouratoglou sent out a bold message in favor of the French Open tournament organizers on the night scheduling saga. He claimed that players such as Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff still have a long way to go to gain as much popularity as Serena Williams or Maria Sharapova.

Mouratoglou, who has trained multiple successful female tennis stars, weighed in on the ongoing debate over night session scheduling. He posted videos of himself explaining the matter on his Instagram, hoping to provide some clarity on the issue.

He said:

"It's not only about leading players like Iga Swiatek, who is a four-time winner, and a three-time winner at the moment. She's not a superstar like Serena when she was playing or Sharapova when she was playing."

He further explained how tournament director Amelie Mauresmo is given the responsibility of looking into not just the players' demands, but also the commercialization and fans' satisfaction as well.

"There are a lot of positive things about treating women equally, but Amelie Mauresmo has responsibilities as a tournament director to make sure the fans are happy and the tournament makes the expected money," he added.

Mauresmo herself addressed the press over this debate, after Ons Jabeur and Jessica Pegula and others made fiery claims on the matter.

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Amelie Mauresmo on French Open night scheduling imbalance

Amelie Mauresmo at the 2025 French Open - Image Source: Getty

Amelie Mauresmo, who is the tournament Director of the French Open, addressed the night scheduling issue, as controversies arose over only men's matches being scheduled for late nights. She started off declaring that no women players have directly raised a complaint on this matter to her.

She further explained that it was not because the tournament doesn't deem women to be fit for primetime slots, but just to provide a prolonged viewing duration of the matches in order to generate business.

"For me, the message that I always said, and I will repeat, is the conditions have not changed of having one unique match in the evening. The message has never been the girls are not worthy of playing at night. It's never been this," she said.

She announced that no further changes will be made in the schedule in the near future due to the vagueness of the concerns raised and to curb the possible financial strain that the change will ring in.