"I'm not helping that" - Iga Swiatek on women's matches being denied night sessions at French Open

World No. 1 Iga Swiatek recently gave her opinion on the fact that all French Open 2023 night sessions thus far have featured men's singles matches.

Ever since the night sessions were introduced at the French Open last year, tournament director Amelie Mauresmo has been under fire for scheduling more men's matches than women's. The case is the same this year, with all five of the night sessions thus far being played by men and not a single one featuring women.

When asked about that, Swiatek implied that she felt slightly guilty about requesting day sessions for herself. But the Pole maintained that she shared the general sentiment about the need for women's matches to get higher priority at the tournament.

"Well, my thoughts didn't really change, but honestly, I have to tell you that I kind of requested every day to play a day session because I felt like I played already night sessions in this clay court swing," Swiatek said at her press conference in Paris.

While the men are playing night sessions everyday, the Pole doesn't watch those matches, as she likes to recover and prepare for her next challenge during that time.

"Well, I didn't even, like, kind of know this because I'm not watching these late evening matches," she said. "I'm mostly just kind of recovering and not thinking about tennis. But obviously, it would be nice if we had women's matches as well."

"But, as I said, I'm not kind of helping that because I always requested a day session match," she added. "But I don't really know what the schedule is for next day, so I can't really go that far and judge because I haven't really checked it."

Iga Swiatek to face Xinyu Wang in the third round of the 2023 French Open

Iga Swiatek during the second round of the 2023 French Open

Iga Swiatek will continue her quest to defend her French Open title when she takes on Wang Xinyu in the third round. Swiatek defeated Cristina Bucsa 6-4, 6-0, in the first round, and Claire Liu 6-4, 6-0 in the second round of the tournament.

Wang, meanwhile, surprised 31st seed Marie Bouzkova in the first round 6-4, 7-6. She then defeated Rebecca Peterson 7-6(5), 6-2 in the second round.

Swiatek and Wang have met once before in a Grand Slam tournament, but at the junior level. Swiatek got a close 7-6, 7-6 win over the Chinese player at the Wimbledon 2018 girls' tournament.

The two players haven't played each other at the WTA Tour level so far though, and will be meeting for the first time at Roland Garros.