My main takeaway from day one: It is possible to butcher a piece of broadcasting so badly that people in the stadium can have a transcendental experience and people at home can be bored out of their minds.
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My main takeaway from day two: Only at Roland Garros can three dudes named Arthur carry an entire day of Slam play.
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Day three: It’s been said on the pod, but the physical presence Mirra Andreeva brings to a tennis court now is formidable. And yet it seems to have integrated so seamlessly into what was there before. I’m trying to stop seeing players in terms of ‘will they win a Grand Slam’, but it’s almost impossible not to see Andreeva in terms of ‘yes’. Day three is just one of the days that she will make talented opponents look…inconsequential.
Also on day three: I fall in Hailey Baptiste love forever on the basis of one (one) set. That happens at majors.
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Day four: I had Victoria Mboko’s qualifying matches on in the background, but her match against Eva Lys in the second round is the first time I really watch her. And I’m into it. I don’t know if it’s just – ‘just’ – the 35 matches she had already won in 2025, but she’s so entirely grooved as a competitor. There’s no nervous rigidity, no stuckness born of tension, no over-adrenalised elevation followed by an inevitable crash. She just plays a tennis match. And plays it really well.
And yes, that backhand.
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Day five: ‘Have a Richard Gasquet feeling’ was on my to-do list for week one. And yet, when his career ended on Chatrier, I didn’t even notice because there were more interesting things going on elsewhere. He ended his career the way he spent it; making the guys who are better than him look good.
He did always seem like a man who truly loved the game – maybe the game more than the sport. It would be wonderful to see that love find a niche in the next phase of his life, maybe behind the scenes, working quiet miracles in player development. But I suspect it’ll be pickleball and Laver Cup vice-captaincy.
Also on day five: Paula Badosa burns the place down against Elena-Gabriela Ruse. Every match she plays this week, I catch at least the deciding set, certain that I won’t regret investing the time and attention – and I never do. With her days in the sport (and the amount of matches she can realistically play at one tournament), numbered, she has the dark, fiery glamour of a Greek hero, and she’s never looked so free of doubt. For the rest of 2025, if you see on the scoreboard that Paula Badosa is in a deciding set, no matter where and who she’s playing, do yourself a favour and watch.
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Day six: Are adverts cursing players, even more effectively than Loitering with Law? Casper Ruud pensively driving a Renault to Roland Garros to the strains of the Pet Shop Boys on every changeover despite very much being driven away from Roland Garros days earlier. Carlos Alcaraz proclaiming the sun his number one rival and then narrowly avoiding being dragged to a fifth by Damir Dzumhur in the night session.
Also day six: It’s been said before, of course, but I simply cannot get over how Elina Svitolina has transformed herself in the second act of her career. Against an inspired Bernarda Pera, in a match not a lot of casual fans will have seen, she takes the first set by standing up on the baseline and hammering away on every single forehand, refusing to back up an inch. As Svitolina serves for the match after what has already been a lengthy, gruelling encounter, Pera produces a run of seven straight points to break serve and lead 3-0 in the tie-break. Svitolina still wins with a gorgeous backhand winner down the line, 7-6(5), 7-6(5). How do you grow a forehand in your thirties? How, when you have so many things mattering do you, are you the hungriest woman in tennis?
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And one last point: Jack Draper got Court Philippe-Chatrier night session billing because of Gael Monfils (and chromosomes). And every person in that packed stadium, and anybody watching that match at home on a worknight on Prime, got to see Jack Draper meet an extremely testing moment magnificently. They got to see him play, they got to see him compete, they got to see him hit a million drop shots, they got to see him unload on forehand after forehand, they got to see him stuff a bewildering amount of laundry into his bag like he was heading home from uni for the weekend, they got to see him be self-deprecatingly charming in a rugby shirt like a Tesco Value young Hugh Grant.
Not everyone will remember or care, but you have to believe that some non-negligible proportion of the people watching, even if they came or switched on for Monfils, will rememberDraper. Even if they just retain a vague sense of name recognition, the aura of someone who matters, who’s interesting, who’s [eyes emoji]. Maybe they tune in for his next match. Maybe, over the next few months, when scrolling idly, they might click on a link with his name in the headline. Maybe they watch an ATP match because his playing in it adds to the sense of intrigue around it. Maybe when the next Roland Garros rolls around, they see his name on the order of play and think, ‘Oh yeah, Jack Draper! I remember him, he’s good. I’ll try to be in my seat for that one.’
And I love that – I’m thinking about it as I watch it – I love that for Jack Draper. Even those of us who have watched him before, we still got something new - got to meet Chatrier night-session Jack Draper, and it was fun for everyone. But if you can’t acknowledge how this is disadvantaging women – yes, even those women who don’t want to play at night – then I don’t know how we have a conversation about this issue,any more than Amelie Mauresmo does.
It’s not even the sexism as much as the stupidity. Because what kind of criminally incompetent suite of chucklefucks doesn’t recognize, in the year 2025, that you should be trying to get Jasmine Paolini in front of as many eyes as possible?
Beautiful writing as always, Hannah, both in praise and in admonition 🤣
Good stuff as always, Hannah. Can we all just stop using the term "Night Session" ? There's nothing sessiony about Roland Garros after dark. Let's agree to call it "Men's Match, and Rarely The One We Want." It's truer, and it rolls off the tongue.
I'm on board.
Beautiful 💫
Hannah, great insight as usual! My greatest grievance with the scheduling is that every morning, exciting WTA matches scheduled first on Chatrier/Lenglen are at 5am my time (I live in the US Eastern time zone). I woke up yesterday to the thrilling final score line of Paolini vs. Svitolina and Swiatek down 6-1 in the first, with the disappointment that I hadn't gotten to watch any of it. After watching the rest of the Swiatek/Rybakina match--which did not disappoint--I found myself losing interest at times during the men's matches the rest of the day (Alcaraz/Shelton and Rune/Musetti). All that to say is yes, what kind of chucklefucks are in charge of this scheduling!?
Lovely writing as always Hannah :) I agree with everything except: the annoying Renault ad with the song "Always on my Mind" is not the Pet Shop Boys version, at least not over here. Maybe they play the Pet Shop Boys for UK viewers :)
Mauresmo press conference was a shocking letdown. If she can’t stand up for women’s night matches, then we women need to make a lot more noise. Paolini is so exciting to watch, and could bring legions of new fans into the sport
Absolute perfection as always!!! Especially the ending and those “chucklefucks”
Thank you for those thoughts !
Just one thing regarding that part :
But I’m really not convinced that’s the reality, at least not for casual fans.
If we’re talking about the French audience, the largest viewership a tennis match can get is on national television, which broadcasts the tournament from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. No casual fan is going to stumble across a tennis match on Prime Video. But they will on France TV before the news and the weather forecast. And I know plenty of hardcore tennis fans who don’t want to pay a subscription to Prime for just one match a day, especially when so many matches are available for free on France TV and its streaming platform.
That Monfils/Draper match would have had far more viewers, and a much bigger impact on the casual audience, had it been scheduled during the day session or on Lenglen. I still have friends, who aren’t even tennis fans, asking me about Auger Aliassime because of his match against Nadal in 2022, which aired on national television in prime time (the last set around 8 p.m.).
I tried to find numbers to support this impression. It’s hard, since Prime doesn’t share viewership data. But while France TV announced around 43 million viewers for the tournament in 2024 (plus another 28 million on its streaming platform), unofficial sources report only about 2 million for Prime. The only number Amazon ever released was 3 million viewers for Nadal/Djokovic in 2022 ... and that was only because they were forced to broadcast it for free after massive backlash from tennis fans and France TV (and with a little help from Rafa, who played the "This might be my last Roland-Garros, I want to play during the day so that as many people as possible can watch on TV" card to try to secure the day session).
To illustrate, here is how many people were watching Roland Garros between 5 p.m and 8 p.m on Friday 30th.
To me, the Prime “night session” isn’t a promotional vehicle for the sport and the players, it’s for an already established fan base. I don't believe Prime create a lot of "new fans". In 2021, there were rumors that it only brought in 90,000 additional subscribers. It’s not even really about featuring “the best match of the day,” since many top players are reluctant to play it. The conditions are completely different from daytime: cold air, dead clay, low bounce, and it’s much harder to hit winners. In my opinion, playing at night is actually a competitive disadvantage for players who aim to go deep in the tournament and need to prepare for the conditions of the semifinals and final (Whereas at the US Open or the Australian Open, it can actually be a competitive advantage, given how hot and/or humid it can get during the day.)
But because of how much they paid for the rights, they’ve worked very hard to sell us the idea that the night session is the marquee event. And I see more and more people buying into it, thinking it’s the most-watched match of the day. It’s not.
What we should really be looking at is how many women’s matches are played around 7–9 p.m., and whether they’re shown on France TV when a men’s match is on at the same time. And also the impact of scheduling in other part of the world, with the time difference.
That said, I understand the optics of the issue. It does look bad that women aren’t featured in what is falsely promoted as the “Match of the Day.” But my approach is to resist that narrative altogether, because the night session isn’t what they claim it is, neither in terms of star power (Zverev used to be the "most featured in night session", a title Rune seems to have inherited, they're not exactly the biggest stars of the draw) nor in terms of viewership or quality (because of the conditions). There’s just a DJ and some spotlights. It looks flashy, but there’s no real substance. Paris isn’t New York, and clay court tennis will always look better during the day, preferably a sunny one. Not at night, with a crowd shivering under blankets (or not even in the stadium, since the wealthier ones would rather watch on screens in the warm lounges with a glass of wine, leaving all those empty seats near the court).
PS : "Fun" fact. Prime video uses 2 women (Sabalenka and Gauff) on the posters in the parisian metro to advertise the night sessions.
ChristineG - thank you so much for this comment, I'm really interested in everything you've said here and the work you've done in bringing out lots of the nuances around this issue and how the ways that we're discussing it don't necessarily fit the facts. I don't have an intelligent response right now, but this is definitely going to sit with me and I'll be thinking it over.
You're welcome, Hannah.
The way the discussion has been framed has bothered me over the past few days (not just on the pod, it’s been widely reported in the French media as well), and it took me some time to understand why the idea that the night slot is a "coveted" one didn’t sit right with me as the starting point of the whole conversation, which is an important one.
This morning, I watched the replay of Swiatek vs. Rybakina (I was on Lenglen yesterday, so I missed the action) on the France TV platform, and I was stunned when the commentators asked the live chat: "Given the quality of this match, do you think it would have deserved the night session?" I was blown away. A rival broadcaster was promoting the night session as the superior product, something players must be "worthy" of, instead of saying something like, "How lucky are we to be offering this match for free to everyone? It’s so important for tennis and for bringing in new fans." How can a match broadcast behind a paywall be considered more important than one aired for free on public television to a broader audience ?
And it made me wonder: Are we, ironically, helping Prime and RG in their push to make the night session the unquestioned 'match of the day,' simply through the way we talk about it, even when we're criticizing it? And shouldn’t we also be putting more pressure on France TV and paying closer attention to the daytime scheduling?
Thank you ChristineG for reframing this so thoughtfully. I have also wondered, is the issue the night session or that Chatrier is a tomb at 11 am. My guess is that if it were full, it might change the conversation.
I have thought that the majors (except Wimbledon where scarcity may create morning demand) don't do themselves any favors by showing these cavernous stadiums empty for first match when there is buzz in the smaller courts. The big stadiums are designed for Week 2 quarters/ semis and finals - like an American parking lot designed for Christmas shopping but empty in July.
I wanted to add something else I thought about this morning. One of the secrets behind the popularity and success of Italian tennis is the creation of a free TV channel, funded by their federation (SuperTennis), which broadcast ATP and WTA tournaments for free to a national audience. That’s what promotes the sport: free content for everyone, not exclusivity and paywalls.
Christine, thank you so much for your work here. You explain it all beautifully.
I agree that the whole Prime night session thing is not really what they try to present it as.
French people have watched Roland Garros on public channels for decades, and SURELY a lot of French people are right now glued to France 2, to see if Boisson can create the upset or not.
The emotions you get from this match can not be compared to watching Sinner or Djokovic on a night session. This right now, an amazing match during the day, is the essential French Open experience.
One additional thought: 11am is the real black hole though. France 2 / 3 only start broadcasting around 1pm or later.
Luckily I live in Belgium. Public channel Tipik broadcasts every day from 11am until 8pm nonstop.
yes, most kids became tennis fans because RG was on TV when they came back from school. And a lot of older ones « studied » their exams in front of RG. This privatization of some matches with Amazon (or other streaming services) doesn’t help the sport.
I had a lot of messages from friends during Lois’s match asking « who is that woman? ». She wouldn’t have had that buzz on Prime, I’m sure of it.
For the 11am start, I trusted France TV press release. Maybe they start at 11 am on France 4? I don’t have TV so I watch the matches on france.tv
Christine, thank you so much for your lengthy interesting relevant post.
It reinforces my belief that the problematic spot in the OOP is the vibeless death slot more than the night session.
I hope our hosts ask Amélie again why women are systematically playing in that 11am slot.
Great writing. And the current day match-ups in the women’s game are at least as / more exciting than in the current men’s game. Svitolina, Paolini ,Swiatek, Rybakina, Osaka, Keys, Gauff Sabalenka all outstanding and exciting players that would grace any era men’s or women’s. With lack of coverage they could easily be seen as ‘uninteresting’ and thus ignored by the less discerning public, like doubles, which used to be a great watch (Newcombe & Roche, the Williams sisters and now Errani & Paolini) when given the coverage but is now rarely seen
Doubles still is a great watch — just doesn’t get the coverage, as you say.
That last paragraph… love it! Adding chucklefucks to my vocabulary immediately 👍
lovely piece of writing. My only addition why are so many of the men getting injured?
Chucklefucks is my new favorite word. Thank you as always, Hannah, for these columns. Your writing is beautiful.
All I have to say to your surgically insightful words regarding no women in nights sessions, is that chucklefucks is both a fantastic description of the bunch of incompetents, and I will be stealing this expression and using in equally piercing fashion.
The two amazing women’s matches this morning, played in front of a criminally small crowd on Chartrier, should have been a night session double. I attended 6 evening sessions last year and saw precious little women’s tennis. It’s a shockingly sexist tournament and the evening sessions are poor value for money compared to the US or Aus Opens.
Astounding to me that anyone had tickets for Swiatek Rybakina in round of 16 and didn’t show up. But there were so many empty seats - appalling!
Can't tell you how much I love both the sentences below for entirely different reasons! Go Hannah!
PS
Delusional or not, I am convincing myself that Draper can beat Sinner. He's looked like a different player this year and hopefully that final against Ruud gives him the courage to take risks in big moments.
Fabulous closing statement! People need to actually see the women to fall in love with their personalities, play styles, and competitive spirits. I can't believe RG is just doubling down on this. I slept in out here in California and by the time I woke up, my options were the rest of the Shelton/Alcaraz match, the whole of Tiafoe/Altmaier, and the Rune/Musetti match yet to come. If HBO Max surveys my viewing for the day, they'll think I'm only interested in watching the men. So maddening.
It says ‘discuss’ under the column but there’s nothing TO discuss. Agree with everything, especially the Draper tub- thumping, hype train stuff 😆. Loved it ❤️
After snatching victory from Paolini, Svitolina really must win it all.