“Who’s watching tennis at 2am?” Ons Jabeur on Roland-Garros schedule controversy

“I would have loved a quarter-final at night, not at 11am. For me, doesn’t make sense. Maybe this is the only Grand Slam – and maybe Australian Open – they play quarter-finals at 11am, which for me, I don’t find it’s… you know, I don’t know the broadcasts. I don’t know the TV, but yeah, you achieve a quarter-final. You have – it’s like, no, you play at 11.

“Anyways, I talked about the night matches. Honestly, I wish I can see the contract time between both [Amazon] Prime [with whom Roland-Garros have a deal in France] and here to know what’s the deal there. You know, there was a lot of good woman’s matches. Obviously not four hours [in duration], but who said it’s healthy to play past 1am, and who said the stadium was full for 1am or 2am? I don’t know who is watching the matches at that time.

“Again, I would suggest to start earlier and then put nice matches on both sides. It’s not healthy also for players to play past, I don’t know, 11pm or midnight.”

Her quarter-final opponent Gauff had spoken earlier in the tournament about the risks of playing such long matches so late, describing it as “not healthy”.