The 2025 French Open is coming to the boil with the favourites still in contention, but issues off court continue to detract from the Roland-Garros spectacle.
The season’s second Grand Slam, the French Open at Roland-Garros, has endured challenging weather and some minor distractions from riots in Paris following Paris St Germain’s victory in the 2025 Champions League final.
These challenges are all in a day’s work for the tournament director Amélie Mauresmo. But the stone in her shoe that won’t go away is the perceived issue of gender bias in the scheduling of matches.
That is to say, top women’s players don’t believe they’re getting as much exposure at prime time as their male counterparts.
Women’s world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka did not feature in an evening session in her first five rounds, when it’s expected that television viewership would be at its peak.
