Coco Gauff weighs in as French Open controversy | Sports News

Coco Gauff walked off Court Suzanne Lenglen on Thursday with a straight-sets win over Tereza Valentova as the 21-year-old star contemplated why the ladies nonetheless do not get heart stage when the lights come on.

After beating Valentova (6-2, 6-4) in the second spherical of the French Open,  Gauff grew to become the newest high-profile voice to query Roland-Garros’ scheduling priorities. She made her level with the identical conviction and readability that Ons Jabeur did simply days earlier than, persevering with to make use of her stardom as one of essentially the most important younger voices in tennis.

“I do think that women’s matches are worthy of a night spot,” Gauff stated post-match. “I definitely do agree with Ons [Jabeur]. You feel what’s best for the fans, but I feel like we produce some high-quality tennis, and we have some great stars on the women’s side who fans I’m sure would love to see.”

Despite a deep area of stars together with herself, Jaber, Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, Jessica Pegula, and Madison Keys, no girls’s matches have been featured in the marquee night time slot by way of the event’s first week. Men’s matches have been featured in the space by way of the event’s first 4 days.

Gauff pointed to her U.S. Open successful expertise, the place she opened the night time session earlier than Novak Djokovic took the courtroom. The final girls’s singles match in the night at Roland Garros was Sabalenka’s fourth-round win over Sloane Stephens in 2023, which she misplaced to Karolina Muchova in the semifinals.

“He’s the greatest player of all time,” Gauff continued. “People were almost just as excited to see me play as him. It’s the same with other places I play, like Australia. There’s an opportunity to improve that,” she stated of the French Open’s scheduling. “And I hope we see that change in the future.”

Jabeur, a fan favourite and former No. 2 in the world, voiced her frustrations after her opening-round loss to Magdalena Frech earlier this week.”It’s sad that we are still in the same situation,” Jabeur stated. “And unfortunate for women’s sport in general.”

The Tunisian star straight criticized the federations and TV broadcasters who make the choices. “I don’t know if the decision-makers have daughters, but I hope they don’t treat them this way,” she continued. 

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“It’s ironic. We don’t broadcast women’s sports or tennis enough, and then we wonder why men’s sport gets more viewers. Of course, it does since it is what’s being shown the most. It’s all connected.”

French Tennis Federation President Gilles Moretton stood firm with the schedule and stated, “Sometimes, for the night session, we need to put together a better match, which we think could be for the spectators. Maybe we will have a few. I have no idea. There are a few female matches on the night sessions. We’ll see. It depends on the schedule, who plays who, and which will be the best match.”