He claims that women’s matches get more exposure in the afternoon, rather than the evening, and that ticket holders for the night session could come away disappointed by watching a two-set women’s match that finishes in an hour.
“The people who complain that there are no women’s matches in the night session, I think it’s unfair to Roland Garros,” Mouratoglou said on Instagram. “Why? First of all, there is more exposure on day matches than night matches because it is on national TV.
“[The] audience is huge compared to platforms, so it is better for women’s tennis for exposure to be during the day than at night.
“When you are tournament director you have to please the fans and make a good business, that’s your job. They have only one match at night, if it’s a women’s match, that can be 6-1 6-1 in one hour. People are going to be extremely unhappy.”
The French coach explained that those who attend Court Philippe-Chatrier are not hardcore supporters and “want to see a superstar” but claimed that Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff pale in comparison to top male stars.
“It’s a fact that men play five sets and women play three sets, you have to take that into consideration,” he added. “When they buy a ticket for night they want to see a superstar. On the women’s, there is Coco, Sabalenka, but you cannot compare Sabalenka’s audience to [Carlos] Alcaraz or Novak [Djokovic].
“Most of the people who go to stadiums are not core fans of tennis, they want to come back home and say ‘I saw Djokovic’ or ‘I saw Alcaraz’, if they come back and they say ‘I saw Swiatek’ it’s not the same.”
Mouratoglou then went on to brutally describe Swiatek as “not a superstar” and rejected her complaints about the scheduling, insisting change would be made if she were comparable to Serena Williams.
“It’s not only about leading players like Iga Swiatek, who is a four-time winner, and a three-time winner at the moment,” he continued. “She’s not a superstar like Serena when she was playing or [Maria] Sharapova when she was playing.
“In 2021 I was coaching Serena and they scheduled her at night, it was the only women’s match schedule at night. She’s a superstar. Even if it lasted one hour, people would come home and say: ‘Wow, I have seen Serena Williams’.”
