Broadcasters & organisers need to improve women’s sport scheduling

Fans were treated to two thrilling finals in the men’s and women’s draws at the French Open - both featuring comeback victories - concluding with a men’s final that has been thrust into the conversation for the greatest tennis match of the modern era.

A five-and-a-half hour epic between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner was so closely contested that just a single point separated the pair over the course of five sets, 193-192 in favour of the defeated Italian.

It was a fitting end to the tournament, but ahead of a box office summer of women’s sport featuring the Women’s Euros and Women’s Rugby World Cup, the scheduling of the women’s matches at the French Open hit the headlines for the wrong reasons.

Tournament organisers featured no women’s matches in any of the 11 prime-time night sessions this year. A decision which led world number 1 Aryna Sabalenka to call for “equal treatment”, whilst US number one Jessica Pegula declared that the treatment female players received at the Grand Slam made her feel like “hitting her head against a wall”.

Meanwhile, three-time major finalist Ons Jabeur highlighted the impact beyond tennis, making the case that the continuing imbalance at the French Open was “unfortunate for women’s sports in general”.

It’s not just the players calling for change. The head of the women’s tour, WTA chief executive officer Portia Archer, said the scheduling of women’s matches is a “systemic” issue across top-level tennis events.

Amelie Mauresmo, French Open tournament director, responded by strongly denying that the scheduling implies female players are not “worthy” of the slot, and instead explained it away by highlighting that the women’s best-of-three-set matches can sometimes be over “really fast”, unlike the best-of-five set matches in the men’s draw, with Mauresmo having to factor in the 15,000 strong crowd coming in for the night session.

One solution would be to follow the Australian Open and US Open, which typically feature two prime-time matches in the evening session. In theory, that would allow for a more balanced split between matches in the men’s and women’s draws.

The drawback? That runs the risk of stretching play late into the early hours of the following morning - an issue that top players have publicly spoken about. Andy Murray famously finished a second round match in the Australian Open at 4am, something he branded a “farce”.

Starting the evening session earlier isn’t a very viable solution either because many fans wouldn’t get there from work quick enough, resulting in empty stands for the first match.

French Open tournament organisers reportedly declined a request from Amazon Prime Video - the exclusive domestic broadcast partner - to put Loïs Boisson’s fourth-round game against Jessica Pegula in the primetime night session timeslot. Boisson was victorious in that match - played in the second daytime slot in front of a half empty stadium - becoming the first French quarter finalist at the tournament in eight years. Her incredible run to the semi-final, where she would succumb to the eventual winner, came against the odds, with the 22-year-old ranked 361 in the world.

Fans not being able to watch the top women’s matches is a problem that extends beyond the French Open. At Queen’s, Emma Radacanu and Katie Boulter’s quarter-final doubles match was not available to watch on any BBC platform, with BBC bosses instead choosing to show a two-year old episode of Bargain Hunt instead.

Whilst French Open organisers claim to put an even number of men’s and women’s matches on the big stadium courts, often the latter feature in the lower-profile opening slots. With crowds building throughout the day, tournament organisers may be citing those low attendances for women’s matches in the opening slots as justification for scheduling that favours the men’s draw.

Modern day audience demand for women’s tennis is greater than ever. When Coco Gauff - this year’s French Open winner - was victorious in the 2023 US Open, that final considerably outperformed the men’s final in viewership numbers. In doing so, it also broke the ESPN record for the most-watched women’s Grand Slam final.

There may be no simple fix to the scheduling challenges faced by the French Open and other leading tournaments today. But what we should be able to expect is transparency. Attempts to manipulate the data or spin the narrative only erode trust. Tournament organisers owe it to players, fans, and the integrity of the competition to be honest about the issues, even when the answers aren’t easy.

Andy Corridan is an Account Director at Sport PR agency The PHA Group