French Open director Amélie Mauresmo says she has some ideas to help avoid so many empty seats

PARIS (AP) — The sight of empty seats in the French Open’s main stadium, particularly for the singles semifinals, was disappointing, tournament director Amélie Mauresmo said Sunday.

Mauresmo and Moretton said at the annual end-of-tournament news conference that more than 650,000 spectators came to Roland Garros over the past three weeks, including the qualifying rounds before main-draw action began on May 26.

Moretton said a review of the whole event will start in a couple of weeks.

“Not everything was perfect. We want to improve,” he said.

One topic that arose last year, too, but did not see any change this time is the way scheduling is handled, particularly with regard to the imbalance between women’s and men’s matches in the one-match night sessions, which have been used for the first 1 1/2 weeks of the singles brackets each of the past three years.

There were zero women’s matches and 11 men’s matches at night during European prime time this year. There was only one women’s night match apiece in 2022 and 2023.

“The generation and depth of talent we are currently witnessing in the sport is incredible. Fans want to see the excitement and thrill of women’s tennis on the biggest stages and in the premium time slots,” the women’s professional tennis tour, the WTA, said in a statement issued by a spokesperson. “To continue building the value of our combined product, a balanced match schedule that features both the best in men’s and women’s tennis is critical.”