Tournament director Amélie Mauresmo outlined the official line on the lack of women's matches featuring in the night sessions and the self write-off Iga Swiatek reaches the last-16.
That's the way it is
Tournament director Amelie Mauresmo said it was impossible to tick every box as she responded to questions about the lack of women's matches in the night session. The first six night sessions of the 2025 French Open have all involved men's matches. No women have played in the evening since Aryna Sabalenka beat Sloane Stephens in the fourth round two years ago. "The message has never been that the girls are not worthy to play at night," said Mauresmo, who is a former world number one tennis player. "We are talking about potential match lengths. Since men's tennis is played at the best-of-five sets, three sets will be played at a minimum." Previously, Mauresmo said organisers were choosing what they considered to be the match of the day without any mention of how long the players would spend on court. "We can't tick every box," she insisted. "Because we have many things to take into account when we are making these choices."
End of the road
Eighth seed Qinwen Zheng ended the run of the Canadian 18-year-old Victoria Mboko. The 22-year-old from China won 6-3, 6-4 in 86 minutes. Mboko said she enjoyed the ride. "Yeah, my first Grand Slam tournament, the experience was pretty nice." In the prelude to her match, Mboko predicted that it was going to be a fight with Zheng. And she was proved right. "Today was a tough battle against Qinwen. She played really good tennis. But to make the third round, I think it's a pretty good result for me. Lots of things to learn and hopefully come back to my next tournament with some more positives and improvements on my game."
This is struggle?
Iga Swiatek, winner of four of the last five women's singles titles, discounted her chances of making it five out of six after she was eliminated in the third round at the Italian Open just before the French Open. Well, the 23-year-old Pole is into the last-16 without dropping a set. Jaqueline Cristian, the world number 60 from Romania, was her latest victim. Swiatek won 6-2, 7-5 in just under two hours.
Stars aligning?
Iga Swiatek was speaking to reporters after her straight sets victory over Jaqueline Cristian while Jelena Ostapenko and Elena Rybakina were slugging it out for the chance to play her on Sunday. Swiatek was asked if she had a preference? "No," she replied. "Am I a good liar? Let's say it doesn't matter, really. Oh, my God. I couldn't play poker." The fluster comes because Swiatek has lost all six matches against Ostapenko and won four of the eight with Rybakina. The gods are a-smiling on the 23-year-old Pole. Rybakina dispatched Swiatek's bete noire 6-2, 6-2.
Au revoir Halys and Fils
So it's goodbye to the last Frenchmen in the tournament. Quentin Halys lost in four sets to the 10th seed Holger Rune. And the French number one Arthur Fils pulled out of the tournament due to injury. The 14th, who came through a five set epic against Jaume Munar on Day 5, was scheduled to play the 17th seed Andrey Rublev on Day 7 for a place in the last-16. At least he registered his best performance at the tournament in what was his third visit.
