World No. 1 Iga Swiatek and Naomi Osaka played one of the matches of the year overnight at the French Open, but you wouldn’t have known by the size of the crowd in the stadium.
Swiatek fought back from the brink of defeat to outlast Osaka 7-6 (7/1), 1-6, 7-5 in nearly three hours and keep her bid for a third successive Roland Garros title on track.
But the much criticised scheduling of sessions at Roland Garros meant there were swathes of empty seats in the 15,000 capacity Court Phillipe Chatrier for the sensational display of women’s tennis.
The French Open has been affected by rain in the opening week, with matches delayed and the roof closed on centre court.
The Swiatek-Osaka match was played between 5.30pm and 8.30pm local time in the day session, which is ticketed separately to the night session.
Fans with ground passes saw barely any action on outside courts because of the rain, but they weren’t allowed to fill the empty seats.
Viewers and tennis commentators were infuriated there were so many empty seats for what was arguably the match of the year.
There is a theory scheduling blockbuster women’s matches in the afternoon session suggests they are not deserving of top billing.
The Tennis Podcast’s David Law wrote on X: “It pisses me off that this place isn’t packed.
He added: “Don’t exactly know how you ensure there aren’t empty seats (maybe by making it the match of the day night session …), but this is a terrible shame when thousands of tennis deprived fans saw nothing.”
Tennis writer Jon Wertheim posted: “Thousands of fans with ground passes haven’t seen a point since noon or so … And they milled around for hours ….Maybe a few of them could’ve been accommodated to ensure a full house now?”
The Times’ Stuart Fraser added: “Meanwhile, thousands waiting outside to get in for the night session. Just let them in to take any seat.”
Andy Murray said: “Osaka vs Swiatek is a brilliant watch. Wta need to do more to capitalise on these match ups!”
Tennis commentator Bastien Fachan said the one-match night sessions “make no sense whatsoever”.
“You get one match only and it’s often lopsided, making it the worst value ticket in tennis.
“It’s billed as the prime time slot but never features women.
“Players should not play in drastically different conditions than during the day.”
Currently, the French Open only holds one match in the night session — on Wednesday it was a contest between Jannik Sinner and Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who lost potentially his last match at his home grand slam.
The Australian Open’s night session features two matches, which is designed to give TV broadcaster and ticketholders value for money, but has resulted in matches finishing hours past midnight.
Swiatek trailed 5-2 in the deciding set against fellow four-time grand slam champion Osaka, saving a match point on her opponent’s serve and winning the final five games to avoid a shock early exit.
“I honestly didn’t believe I could win, because I would be pretty naive,” said Swiatek, who now holds a 30-2 record in five trips to Paris.
“But it didn’t change the fact that I just tried to do work to play better. I actually managed to be more focused at the end of the match, which went pretty badly.
“In first and second set I felt like I’m not completely in the zone. When I was under the biggest pressure I was able actually to switch that and maybe that made the difference.” Swiatek is attempting to become only the fourth woman in the Open era to lift four Roland Garros titles and just the second — after Serena Williams — to complete the clay-court treble of Madrid, Rome and French Opens in the same season.
Osaka, appearing at only a second Grand Slam since giving birth to her daughter last July, was on the cusp of her biggest win since returning to tennis at the start of the year before it slipped from her grasp.
“This match was really intense, much more intense for the second round than I ever expected,” said Swiatek, who goes on to play Jana Fett or Marie Bouzkova in the last 32.
“Naomi played amazing tennis and maybe she is going to be a clay-court specialist in a while!”
Swiatek politely scolds raucous crowd
With Swiatek battling to stay in the match as Osaka threatened a huge upset, a shout from the crowd mid-point left her visibly frustrated.
“Sometimes under a lot of pressure, when you scream something during the rally, it is very distracting and hard to focus,” Swiatek said while addressing fans on Court Philippe Chatrier after the match.
“This is serious for us and sometimes it is hard to accept. The stakes are big and we are playing for a lot of money. If you could support us before the rallies but not during.
“I love you guys and I always love playing here so let’s continue that.” Swiatek again touched on the incident in her post-match press conference as the topic of French Open spectators’ behaviour resurfaced in the wake of a claim by David Goffin that a fan spat chewing gum at him as he defeated French player Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard on Tuesday.
“It happened more times, especially before the returns, and that’s why I wanted to speak out about it, because if it would happen one time, I would just let it go,” Swiatek said of fans crying out during play.
“I know the French crowd is enthusiastic. Yeah, but for now in tennis we have these kind of rules that there should be, like, more silence in the audience, and I just wanted to point out that it’s not easy for us.” The Pole was hopeful her gentle reprimand would not turn the Roland Garros faithful against her.
“But I know that French crowds can be kind of harsh, so I don’t want to be under the radar right now,” said a smiling Swiatek.
“So, yeah, I don’t know if that was a good decision or not.”
— With AFP