"More night matches for women at Roland Garros" - says Billie Jean King

Tennis legend and advocate for equal rights, Billie Jean King, has spoken out about night matches at Roland Garros and believes the French Open should have scheduled more for women’s games.

Billie Jean King is in Paris these days where she watched both the final of men's and women's tennis as a special guest. The tennis legend is still very active around the game and she believes giving more night session matches for WTA players will create more exposure for the game.

King thinks the tournament’s new director, Amelie Mauresmo, will be changing that for next year, after this year she said men’s tennis has more “appeal” and it was hard to find high-profile women’s games to schedule at night.

She said:

“It will stay that way if we don’t have more matches, that’s for sure, you’ve got to put them when it’s prime time and you have got to figure it out and you want to give equal opportunities to both genders. Always. You always want to make sure you do the right thing by each person, they should have the same amount of women’s matches as they do men’s."

And added:

“If we keep treating ourselves like second-class citizens, we will stay second-class citizens, you want to make everyone feel important. We should have more matches, but I think Amelie will take care of that next year.”