Ons Jabeur expressed some frustration after her 2024 Roland Garros defeat to Coco Gauff, admitting she would have liked a later start to her match.
The two quarter-final protagonists stepped out early to compete for a semi-final spot. Their match began at 11 a.m. local time, which wasn’t that thrilling for Jabeur. She played a really strong opening set to go up 1-0 but then got outplayed in the following two sets to lose the match in three sets.
She was quite frustrated by losing the match, and she left out some of her grievances towards the end. The Tunisian admitted that she wouldn’t have minded playing a night match instead of an 11 a.m. start.
“I would have loved a quarter-final at night, not at 11:00 am. For me, it doesn’t make sense. I wish I can see the contract time between both Prime and here to know what’s the deal there.”
Night matches are generally considered premium matches, and most of the time, men play those matches, even though the matches often overextend, causing even more trouble because of late-night finishes.
“There were a lot of good women’s matches. Obviously not four hours, but who said it’s healthy to play past 1:00 am, and who said the stadium was full for 1:00 am or 2:00 am? I don’t know who is watching the matches at that time.”
Jabeur has a fair point that, logistically, a women’s match makes more sense for the night slot. Ultimately, she admitted that events should do better with the scheduling, which was something players complained about last year as well.
“We deserve a better scheduling. We talked about this in Australia. We are still talking about this here. We have to find a way out so that everybody is happy — the players, the journalists, the full team.”
“The ball kids are young and they’re still on the courts when it’s really late. I don’t know if it’s logical to have all that.”
