The French Open’s night session drama is heating up again! Stars like Coco Gauff and Ons Jabeur have spoken out against men’s matches hogging the prime-time slots on Court Philippe-Chatrier. Now, more voices are joining the chorus. So far in 2025, all six night matches have featured men’s singles, leaving women’s tennis sidelined under the lights. This has sparked frustration among top players, both current and former.

Jabeur didn’t hold back, saying, “I don’t think they have daughters” about the scheduling choices. Coco had chimed in with similar feelings, highlighting the lack of spotlight for women’s tennis. But Roland-Garros tournament director Amelie Mauresmo, a former world No. 1 herself, stood her ground. She told the media, “We have one single match per night session. It hasn’t changed. Accordingly, we won’t change everything again.”

Rennae Stubbs, who famously coached Serena Williams for the 2022 US Open, took to her podcast on June 1 to speak up about the issue. She said, “Based on the fact that Amelie Mauresmo, who is the tournament director of the Aust- shouldn’t be the Australian Open, that’s Craig Tiley because he does a very good job of equality. But she has not put a women’s match on at night.” Interestingly, since the introduction of night sessions in 2021, only four night matches under Mauresmo’s tenure have featured women’s singles, with none scheduled in 2024 or so far in 2025.

This did not sit well with Stubbs, who added, “Now the whole complaint is, well, the women’s is best of three; it could be an hour, the people aren’t getting what they want. Well, then put two matches on at night and start it at five.” It seems like an easy fix that could have been done if scheduling was done right. She added, “It’s not brain surgery here.” But why wasn’t it done?

Mauresmo explained that the men’s best-of-five format means longer matches, which she says offers better value for fans who buy tickets for night sessions. “The play time also is taken into consideration, potential play time, obviously because we can’t plan ahead, be it for women’s tennis or men’s tennis,” she added. So, while the debate rages on, the French Open is sticking to its guns—at least for now!

Rennae counters this with some facts, though: “And the fact that you have not played one women’s match and we’ve had great women’s matches. Great women’s names playing against each other early on in the tournament, it’s just… It’s shocking to me that she doesn’t understand how bad that looks.” And it’s true.

So far, the WTA has had some intense matchups that led to great battles. For instance, Iga Swiatek vs. Elena Rybakina just battled a tough three-set match yesterday. It was much-awaited since the Pole had never beaten Elena on clay. Swiatek persevered from a set down to book a ticket to the quarters. Earlier in the tournament, Paula Badosa and Naomi Osaka faced off in their opening round. Both were coming back from injuries and delivered a highly intense clash that saw the Spaniard rise and take the win.

Not to mention, this is the first time in the 21st century that five American women, including Coco Gauff, have made it to the fourth round of the French Open, alongside three other Americans on the ATP side. They are making history as the highest number of US players in the draw in years! So why isn’t the WTA getting more attention? Not just Stubbs, another former pro wants to know the answer.

Chanda Rubin joins Coco Gauff in calling out the French Open schedule

Former American pro Rubin recently jumped into the French Open night session controversy on the Tennis Channel Live Podcast. She didn’t hold back, saying, “I think when they conceived of this night session, which is really just one match, and with the start time of it, when they conceived of it, they knew that they didn’t really care about having the women play in this spot, in this slot, because of the time.” Rubin gets it—men’s matches are best-of-five sets, so they want a minimum of three sets for the night session. But she says, “The question is, why are they doing that?”

Like Stubbs, she also called out the late start time, which she thinks is totally unnecessary. “Why did they move to a session that starts at 8:20 at night when this has been done for tournaments for decades now?” she asked. She pointed out that traditional night sessions start earlier and can easily fit both men’s and women’s matches. “You have a night session; you start at a certain time, you can have a couple of matches, you can play a women’s match, you can play a men’s match, and there is no issue.”

She didn’t stop there. Chanda slammed the optics of having a tournament director as the public face of this scheduling mess. “And unfortunately for me, they’ve got Amelie Mauresmo going out as the face of this decision when it was made before she even became tournament director,” she said. “And yes, putting a woman there to explain it makes it go, I guess, across a lot easier than if you had a man in that position explaining that decision. But I just think it’s just poorly done all the way around.”

With the early rounds wrapped up, the French Open is now heading into the quarterfinals. But the big question remains: will the players’ voices spark a schedule shake-up? We want to hear your thoughts—drop a comment below!