French Open: Jessica Pegula criticises schedule as players hit out at lack of women's night matches

Jessica Pegula has joined Coco Gauff and Ons Jabeur in criticising French Open schedulers for not showcasing more women's tennis matches during night sessions at Roland-Garros.

There has been growing frustration from the WTA Tour's star names for not putting matches in evening sessions, with no women's singles ties scheduled on any of the first eight days of this year's contest.

Tournament director Amelie Mauresmo has previously rejected accusations that the scheduling suggests female players are not "worthy" of the prime-time slots, although Pegula remains disappointed that the annual discussion has still not resulted in change.

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"We are an event that is supposed to be equal. Slams, it's supposed to be equal. Why not give us some more chances to be?" Pegula said on Saturday afternoon, following her third-round victory over Marketa Vondrousova.

"But again, it feels like just hitting my head against the wall because I feel like we have been talking about this for two, three, four [years], probably forever, to be honest, because it's never been equal."

The US Open and Australian Open are the other two Grand Slam tournaments to sell tickets for night sessions, where the two matches per evening typically involve one from the women's draw and one from the men's singles.

Men's world No 1 Jannik Sinner was asked for his view after his victory over Jiri Lehecka, where he said: "Look, we don't make the schedule. We are players and we don't make the schedule.

"We have the same amount of men's and women's matches on the big courts. We have the same amount of prize money on men's and women's. The night schedule, I don't make the schedule so I cannot give you any feedback.

"I don't want to comment on that or go into details. I think we have equal so many things at the moment here and it's nice to see. Maybe things can change in future. I don't know."

There have been only four matches from the women's draw held in the night slot since it was introduced in 2021, with Jabeur among those concerned about the impact it has on the growth of the sport.

"It's unfortunate for women's sports in general. Not for tennis, but in general," said Jabeur after her first-round exit on Tuesday. "I hope whoever is making the decision, I don't think they have daughters because I don't think they want to treat their daughters like this.

"It's a bit ironic. They don't show women's sport, they don't show women's tennis, and then they ask the question, 'yeah, but mostly they [viewers] watch men'. Of course they watch men more because you show men more. Everything goes together."

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