As Roland-Garros ends on Sunday, with the men’s final between Novak Djokovic and Casper Ruud, the tournament director drew an initial assessment of the 2023 edition of Roland-Garros.
The sports record of the French at Roland-Garros is not very flattering. But on the satisfaction side, Amélie Mauresmo, director of the tournament, welcomed a successful fortnight, Sunday, June 11, in front of the press. The tournament director claims a “record” figure of “630,000 people who entered the stadium” for three weeks, but was also asked about the various controversies that accompanied the tournament.
Only one women’s night session match: “We can do better”
Of the ten matches scheduled for the evening session, only one, that between Aryna Sabalenka and Sloane Stephens, was a meeting of the ladies table, Sunday June 4. A programming criticized by the American Jessica Pegula in the columns of BBC Sports, who considered that women’s tennis was “underrated” at Roland Garros. “I’m comfortable with the daytime programming, but I agree that we could do better on the evening sessions.recognized Amélie Mauresmo. But when you look at the overall programming, I think there is more of a balance between men and women on the big slots and the big courts, compared to last year. We would also have liked to put some of the top-ranked players in the night session, but they don’t always want to and if we can, we try to listen to their wishes.”.
As for scheduling two matches in a night session like at the US Open or the Australian Open? “We have four matches a day on the Philippe Chatrier court, and we think that putting five matches on a court is too much. If we brought the night session forward to 7 p.m. to play two matches and not finish too late, the seats would be empty because Ile-de-France residents leave work late. We don’t want to finish at two or three in the morning”commented Amélie Mauresmo.
The locker room “very divided” on the disqualification of Miyu Kato and her partner in women’s doubles
This is one of the images that made the most headlines during the fortnight: that of a ball boy, in tears, after being hit by a ball sent inadvertently by Miyu Kato, associated in doubles with Aldila Sutjiadi. The Japanese-Indonesian pair were disqualified for it, after their opponents, Sara Sorribes-Tormo and Marie Bouzkova, brought the ballboy’s tears back to the chair umpire. Alizé Cornet then defended Miyu Kato, calling this disqualification a“unfair”.
“I think the dressing room is very divided on this, tempers Amélie Mauresmo. I’ve heard a lot of people say that it’s not fair, others who say that if you make a ball boy cry for 7 or 8 minutes, that means something. I’m not going to comment because when you see the video after making the decision, it’s always much easier. The decision was made by the referee and the supervisor without seeing the video. We refer to the rules of the Grand Slams which are quite clear. There was a tournament decision to keep her in mixed doubles, which was something positive, at least for her.”.
A sometimes hostile atmosphere: against Taylor Fritz, “it went a bit far”
Whistles, booed players… The Roland-Garros public sometimes made themselves heard in a hostile way during the fortnight, in particular against Taylor Fritz, opposed to the French Arthur Rinderknech in the second round, where “it went a bit too far”concedes the tournament director. “But I didn’t get any feedback from the players or the officials on the behavior of the supporters. I noticed that there was rather a good atmosphere”she added.
Amélie Mauresmo was especially delighted with the supercharged atmosphere, especially on court 14, during the qualifying week: “We really wanted a three-week tournament, and we’re very happy with this opening week, during which all the tickets were sold out, and we made the players in the qualifiers feel like they were part of the Roland tournament- Garros”. And with court 14 very often full, it could be considered to play qualifying matches on the Simonne-Mathieu court during the next edition.
A ladies’ final in 5 sets? “I think it would be interesting”
Asked about the possibility of competing in the ladies’ final in the best of five rounds in the future, Amélie Mauresmo assured that it was “an interesting avenue to explore”without knowing if it would take the agreement of the four Grand Slam tournaments to set it up. “I was disappointed when the Women’s Masters final went back to the best of three rounds. It won’t happen overnight, it would take preparation, but I think it would be something very interesting”she added.
2023-06-11 13:19:49
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