'You have to start it earlier': Tim Henman comes up with solution for French Open night matches problem

Former Britain’s number one Tim Henman has come up with a suggestion regarding the controversy night matches at French Open. The organisers at the second Grand Slam of the year are increasingly under pressure after it becomes clear that they have preferred hosting men’s matches at night time on the centre court instead of women’s.

Gilles Moretton, President of the French Tennis Federation, recently spoke to The Athletic, explaining the reasoning behind these decisions. “The schedule is one key point on the tournament,” he said. “Sometimes we have to think about what could be better for spectators. That’s why sometimes we have to make some choices. Sometimes we need to put, I mean, for the night session, we need to put the better match. Maybe we will have a few, I have no idea, a few female matches on the night sessions. We’ll see. Depends on the schedule, who is playing who, who will be the best match.”

Those comments did not go down well with some of the big-name players in women’s tennis, including the likes of Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur and America’s Coco Gauff. Now, former Britain’s number one Henman, who is currently working at TNT Sports during the French Open transmission, has come up with a solution to the problem. The 50-year-old is of the opinion that having more matches at night will give women’s players more opportunities to feature at prime time, something that has happened at the Australian and US Open.

“Look, the initial issue is around the night session. The night session, when it was brought in, was about generating more revenue, whether that’s through television rights or ticket sales,” he said. “That’s fine, and I get that, I accept that most events would want to do that; however, one match in the night session, I don’t believe it works; therefore, you are not providing an equal platform for the women to be playing. The way you would do that is by having a night session where you have two matches, which is what happens in New York and Australia, but you can’t have a night session that starts at 8.20, you have to start it earlier. For me, the French Tennis Federation, if they continue down this path of always putting men’s matches on, they are creating a very difficult situation for themselves. I think there is a distinct message that this is the prime time match, in the evening, and if you keep saying that it’s just going to be men’s matches playing, I think you definitely are sending a message. If they want to rectify it, they should go to two matches and start earlier.”