Iga Swiatek has been told she is “not a superstar” and that she needs to be more like Serena Williams if she wants to be given preferential treatment at the French Open

Iga Swiatek has been told she is no Serena Williams

Iga Swiatek received a harsh reality check when she was told she’s “not a superstar” like Serena Williams, amid the growing tension over the French Open’s scheduling of women’s matches.

Despite her quest for a fourth consecutive Roland Garros title, Swiatek and her fellow female competitors have yet to headline the evening session on Court Philippe-Chatrier. The issue has prompted several female players to voice their concerns, while tournament director Amelie Mauresmo faced tough questions about the scheduling choices.

Mouratoglou suggested that women’s matches gain more visibility during the daytime, as opposed to the evening, and pointed out that night session ticket holders might feel shortchanged if a two-set women’s match wraps up within an hour.

“The people who complain that there are no women’s matches in the night session, I think it’s unfair to Roland Garros,” Mouratoglou stated on Instagram. “Why? First of all, there is more exposure on day matches than night matches because it is on national TV.

“[The] audience is huge compared to platforms, so it is better for women’s tennis for exposure to be during the day than at night.

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“When you are tournament director you have to please the fans and make a good business, that’s your job. They have only one match at night, if it’s a women’s match, that can be 6-1 6-1 in one hour. People are going to be extremely unhappy.

Patrick Mouratoglou has spoken out on the controversial matter.(Image: Getty)

“It’s a fact that men play five sets and women play three sets, you have to take that into consideration,” he remarked. “When they buy a ticket for night they want to see a superstar. On the women’s, there is Coco, Sabalenka, but you cannot compare Sabalenka’s audience to [Carlos] Alcaraz or Novak [Djokovic].

“Most of the people who go to stadiums are not core fans of tennis, they want to come back home and say ‘I saw Djokovic’ or ‘I saw Alcaraz’, if they come back and they say ‘I saw Swiatek’ it’s not the same.

“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 [Maria] Sharapova when she was playing.

“In 2021 I was coaching Serena and they scheduled her at night, it was the only women’s match schedule at night. She’s a superstar. Even if it lasted one hour, people would come home and say: ‘Wow, I have seen Serena Williams’.”