"If you wanna be treated equal" - Naomi Osaka's coach Patrick Mouratoglou wants WTA stars to prove they 'deserve' to play French Open night matches
Patrick Mouratoglou has weighed in on the French Open night session debate and mentioned that women need to show why they "deserve" to be put in the night sessions. As an acclaimed coach of many prominent female tennis stars like Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams, his experience in coaching women led him to break down the reasoning behind such claims in detail.
The tournament organisers had initially listed the duration of women's matches to be one of the reasons for not putting their matches in night sessions. French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo also mentioned that there are no plans to make any changes to the existing set-up.
Mouratoglou elaborated on how women should try to dismantle the idea that they are not physically capable of playing long hours of tennis. He posted a video on his Instagram, explaining that after years of coaching, he can say that women are equally capable of playing long matches.
"If you wanna be treated equally, let's do it all the way. You know it would be a good also, message. We want to be treated equally and we are prepared to also to show that we deserve it. We play longer matches. It's more difficult physically, but we are able to do it, and we want to do it," he said.
Patrick Mouratoglou had also defended the French Open tournament organisers earlier over the night session scheduling saga.
Patrick Mouratoglou defended French Open director Amelie Mauresmo over night scheduling
Patrick Mouratoglou boldly defended the French Open organisers, especially Amelie Mauresmo, in an earlier video he posted on Instagram regarding the scheduling of the night session matches. He said that players like Iga Swiatek do not have the stardom that Serena Williams or Maria Sharapova had, to fill big courts.
"It's not only about leading players like Iga Swiatek, who is a four-time winner, and a three-time winner at the moment. She's not a superstar like Serena when she was playing or Sharapova when she was playing."
He sided with the organisers and said that Mauresmo has a lot of responsibilities to give business to sponsors, and it is unfair to put gender bias allegations on them.
"Amelie Mauresmo has responsibilities as a tournament director to make sure the fans are happy and the tournament makes the expected money," he added.
The tournament has made no changes in the scheduling since.