This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
THE placement of today’s women’s semi-finals matches were slammed by the head of the women’s tennis tour.
WTA CEO Steve Simon said the tour is “extremely disappointed” by the scheduling and calls it “unfair and inappropriate.”
Normally, all French Open singles semi-finals are held in Court Philippe Chatrier, with the women on Thursday and men on Friday. But after a full day of play was washed out by rain on Wednesday, tournament officials were forced to shuffle the schedule.
With quarter-final action moved to Thursday, the women’s semi-finals got shifted to Friday, sharing the day with the men’s semis.
With more rain in the forecast today, the decision was made to put the two women’s semi-finals on simultaneously at the second- and third-biggest courts at Roland Garros, starting just after 11am.
The two men’s semi-finals, including Rafael Nadal against Roger Federer, were to be played back-to-back at Chatrier.
Simon’s statement said the women “earned their right to play on the biggest stage.” It added that the WTA thinks “other solutions were possible,” although didn’t offer any.
