French Open 2025: Roland Garros is facing accusations of gender bias; here's why

The 124th edition of the French Open is currently underway with Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek, defending champions in men’s and women’s singles respectively, among those advancing to the quarter-finals. The tournament got underway on Sunday, 25 May with clay legend Rafael Nadal bidding an emotional farewell in a special ceremony that took place at the end of Day 1.

Also bidding an emotional goodbye at Stade Roland Garros was France’s very own Richard Gasquet, a former top-10 player whose journey as a player ended with a second-round defeat against Jannik Sinner.

The organisers of the clay-court Grand Slam, however, have also been accused of gender bias by world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka along with other female players.

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Why French Open is facing accusations of gender bias

Sabalenka, for one, has insisted that she should be playing on Court Philippe-Chatrier – the centre court at Stade Roland Garros where all the major matches, including the final, take place, and not the smaller courts that are used for other matches.

“If you ask me what I prefer, I prefer to play on Philippe Chatrier,” Sabalenka said at a press conference after her fourth-round victory over Amanda Anisimova at Court Suzanne Lenglen, which has a capacity of 10,000 – 5,000 less than Philippe Chatrier.

“Why the decision was to put me on that court for the second time, I don’t know. Hopefully from now I’m going to be playing only on Philippe Chatrier. I think I should be, right?” the world No 1 and three-time Grand Slam champion added.

And it’s not just the fact that a player of Sabalenka’s stature is having to play at smaller courts rather than the centre-court; Tunisian player Ons Jabeur and American Coco Gauff have called for more women to be included in late-night fixtures – which the clay-court Grand Slam had first introduced in 2021.

“I do think that women’s matches are worthy of a night spot,” Gauff told reporters after defeating Czech teenager Tereza Valentova 6-2, 6-4 in the second round.

“If there is going to be two spots, I don’t think that a woman should play after the men at 8:15 pm. I just think that’s unfair. You could go on at 11:00 pm and that’s if the match really goes fast…

“If they are going to put one match at 8:15 pm, for sure there could be an opportunity to put a woman there,” she added.

Women have played a total of four night matches at the French Open in the last four years, the last of which occurred in 2023 when Sabalenka defeated USA’s Sloane Stephens in the last-16.

Jabeur, who has been quite the trailblazer so far in her career and is the highest-ranked African and Arab tennis player across WTA and ATP rankings history, felt the organisers of the French Open "did not have daughters" .

“It’s sad we are still seeing this. In Europe, it’s unfortunate for women’s sports in general. Whoever is making the decision, I don’t think they have daughters, because I don’t think they want to treat their daughters like this,” Jabeur said on the lack of women in the tournament’s prime time slots.

Gauff echoed Jabeur’s statement and felt Parisians would love to watch some of the female stars in action post-sunset.

“I definitely do agree with Ons,” added Gauff, a former French Open finalist and US Open champion.

“I feel like we produce some high-quality tennis and we have some great stars on the women’s side who fans I’m sure would love to see,” she added.