The 2025 French Open is now over, with both Carlos Alcaraz and Coco Gauff winning the titles in the singles events in the men’s and women’s divisions, respectively. However, this year the tournament was marred by quite a few controversial moments. For example, when Novak Djokovic was forced to play at the Suzanne-Lenglen instead of the Philippe-Chatrier, quite a few fans raised their eyebrows. Then, later on, the French Open was even slammed for alleged Carlos Alcaraz favoritism after Novak Djokovic’s roof drama. Amid all these, some of the players looked quite annoyed with the crowd’s behavior in this tournament. But the controversy that stood tall among them was the organizers facing the backlash from the players due to the lack of women’s matches being scheduled for the night session. However, amid all these controversies, the French Open made a revolutionary move when it came to umpiring. What’s it?
If we take a look at the complaints by the WTA stars surrounding the scheduling issues at the French Open, Tunisian star Ons Jabeur was the most vocal on this topic. Since the launch of its night format in 2021, the French Open has promoted the evening session, a singles match scheduled at 8:15 pm local time, as the highlight of each day’s play. But interestingly, of the 52-night sessions held since its commencement, only four of them have been women’s matches. In 2025, the number was zero!
Seeing this, Ons Jabeur criticized the scheduling for women’s players getting snubbed from the prime-time night session at Philippe-Chatrier. She said, “I hope whoever is making the decision (on scheduling), 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 (say), ‘Yeah, but mostly they watch men.’ Of course, they watch men more because you show men more. Everything goes together.” Later on, Coco Gauff confirmed her agreement with the Tunisian by saying, “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.”
Even the world number one, Aryna Sabalenka, had then said, “There was a lot of, like, great battles, a lot of great matches which would be cool to see as night sessions. Just more people in the stands watching these incredible battles. And just to show ourselves to more people. I definitely agree that we deserve to be put on a bigger stage. Like better timing, more people watching.” Amid all this buzz, surrounding the scheduling issues, the French Open organizers made a groundbreaking decision by introducing five female officials for the Roland Garros finals. This was the first time that anything had happened like this in the history of this tournament!
Eva Asderaki officiated the men’s singles, Marijana Veljovic did the women’s singles, men’s doubles was officiated by Aurelie Tourtle, women’s doubles by Miriam Bley, and lastly the mixed doubles by Lara Morgan. Is it a sprinkle of water in the flames raised by the WTA pros recently about the bias? We don’t know, but it’s definitely a very interesting move!
All 5 @rolandgarros finals were umpired by female officials, first time in a history:
Men’s singles – Eva Asderaki
Men’s doubles – Aurélie Tourte
Women’s singles – Marijana Veljovic
Women’s doubles – Miriam Bley
Mixed doubles – Lara Morgan
— Gabriela Zaloga (@gabrikoz) June 8, 2025
Talking about complaining about the bias, later on, Ons Jabeur also shared a lengthy social media post saying, “When a woman wins 6-0, 6-0, it’s called boring. Too easy. When a man does it? That’s ‘dominance.’ ‘Strength.’ ‘Unstoppable.’ When women play with power, they’re told they ‘play like men.’ As if strength, speed, or aggression don’t belong in a woman’s game. If they celebrate, they’re dramatic. If they don’t, they’re cold. Too emotional. Too distant. Too loud. Too quiet. Too much. Never just right. And yet, the game keeps rising.”
She further added, “No one’s denying the greatness in men’s tennis, the fierce battles, the legacies, the magic under pressure. But honoring one side of the sport shouldn’t mean ignoring the other. The women’s game has been writing its own legacy loudly, brilliantly, and for far too long without full recognition.” Tennis legend, Pam Shriver claimed it’s extremely triggering, and painful to have a Tournament Director, former WTA player and number one in the world basically “slapping women’s tennis in 2025.” According to Shriver, “She (Mauresmo) threw women’s tennis under the bus.“
A lot of players like Jabeur raised their voices during the French Open, but did the organizers say anything on this topic, though?
French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo’s reply to the scheduling controversy
After seeing all the buzz surrounding this topic, Mauresmo came up with a strong message claiming, “It has never been that the girls are not worthy to play at night. It’s never been this. I will not accept that you carry this message. That’s really clear to me. What I’m saying is I’m talking and we are talking, because I’m not the only one to make the decisions about potential match length.”
Interesting Fact: The last women’s singles match to be played in the night session at Court Philippe Chatrier was a fourth-round match between Aryna Sabalenka and Sloane Stephens on June 4, 2023.
She emphasized that the choice to schedule men’s matches in the evening sessions rather than the women’s was purely based on the format difference, i.e., best-of-five sets for men and best-of-three for women. So, according to the French Open director, “It’s the length of the matches, not the level they reach.“
After seeing these comments, the WTA spokesperson issued a statement saying that the WTA encourages all combined tournaments to provide a balanced match schedule that showcases both women’s and men’s tennis, and also in the premium slot. According to the French Open president, Gilles Moretton, the decision was mainly based on the fact of putting the “best match” at night. Amid all this chaos surrounding the scheduling at the French Open, do you think the introduction of five female officials is a good move from the tournament organizers?
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