Iga Swiatek vs Naomi Osaka was an instant French Open classic – so where were all the fans?

As the engrossing, often breathless second-round French Open match between Iga Swiatek and Naomi Osaka reached a thrilling final, the Women’s Tennis Association’s social media channels summed up what most of the sport was thinking: “A match that calls for a final worthy,” the post on X/Twitter said.

It was an instant classic between two four-time Grand Slam champions, played over three hours of the highest quality and drama. Defending champion and world number 1 Swiatek was forced to save match points and dig deep to extend her Roland Garros winning streak to 13 matches, while denying Osaka her biggest win in years. The 26-year-old, who only returned to the tour in January after giving birth to her first child, Shai, offered a tantalizing reminder of her talents after a 15-month absence from the sport. It pointed to a bright future and renewed rivalry.

For a second round match it had everything. Except from a full house at Court Philippe-Chatrier. Even before it started, the meeting between Swiatek and Osaka was the clear match of the day; a blockbuster, popcorn clash between world number 1s, past and present, with eight grand slam titles in between. But someone should have told the crowd in Paris. The three-hour epic was played between 5:30 PM and 8:30 PM local time, conveniently you might think. Yet the match took place on Roland Garros’ largest show field in front of hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of empty seats.

“Osaka vs Swiatek is a brilliant watch,” Andy Murray posted, just as the tense first set reached a thrilling tiebreak. “[The] WTA must do more to capitalize on these matches!”

It was unclear what the 37-year-old Murray – one of the most vocal proponents of women’s tennis within the men’s game – meant by ‘doing more’. But it wasn’t hard to imagine the former Wimbledon champion disappointed by the size, or lack thereof, of the Philippe-Chatrier crowd.

It was also not the only sparsely attended women’s singles match this week: on Tuesday and Wednesday, French players Alize Cornet and Caroline Garcia played in front of large numbers of empty seats after being awarded the opening match of the day by Philippe. Chatrier. As the atmosphere was flat and there was no fire after starting at 12:00 local time, both Cornet and Garcia suffered defeats.

In the case of Swiatek and Osaka’s thriller, empty seats were visible despite it being one of only two matches being played at the time. Only 55 minutes of play was played on the outdoor courts on Wednesday, with the indoor arenas at Philippe-Chatrier and Suzanne-Lenglen ensuring the matches could go ahead. Even then they were not full. It hardly seemed like there were any other options, although some spectators may have been so tempered by the circumstances that they wanted an early trip home.

However, that was not the case for the final match of the day at Philippe-Chatrier, between Australian Open champion and world number 2 Jannik Sinner and 37-year-old French favorite Richard Gasquet, who played what might have been his. last match at Roland Garros. Because it was a standalone event in what the French Open calls the ‘night session’, the match was judged separately from the earlier ‘day session’. It was also completely packed: and there was a loud, raucous atmosphere, at least at first. Two hours after Swiatek and Osaka gave it their all until the end, Court Philippe-Chatrier felt transformed.

Why then was there such a difference when it came to the sense of occasion? Perhaps the night session itself and its scheduling sends a message: of the ten night sessions held last year, only one was a women’s singles match. It was the same the year before, when nine of the ten played a men’s singles match. Scheduling a men’s match of the self-contained night session guarantees three sets no matter how competitive they are, while a women’s match can only guarantee two and can be over in an hour if it is particularly one-sided. However, Swiatek and Osaka played three sets and almost three hours, with the intensity not dropping once. As for Sinner and Gasquet, it was crystal clear within an hour that the Italian would cruise to victory.

Should Swiatek and Osaka have played at night instead? The French Open not only missed the match of the day, but perhaps the match of the tournament, a final played on the first Wednesday. There will certainly be more questions for tournament director Amelie Mauresmo, the two-time Grand Slam winner and former coach of Andy Murray, who admitted last year that the French Open “could do better” to have a more equal scheduling of night matches.

As for the French Open fans themselves, they came under fire again at the end of Swiatek and Osaka’s epic, when the defending champion and ‘Queen of Clay’ shouted out spectators who were making noise during the points. It was a remarkable move by Swiatek, and a courageous one. On Tuesday, Belgian player David Goffin faced the wrath of the French Open crowd on a raucous Court 14 as he played home favorite Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. Goffin claimed chewing gum was spit at him as the former world number 7 accused fans of going “too far” and showing “total disrespect”.

“It’s really too much. It’s going to be football, soon there will be smoke bombs, hooligans and fights in the stands,” Goffin said. “It’s starting to get ridiculous. Some people are there more to cause problems than to create atmosphere.”

And yet, the lack of such an atmosphere was the most troubling aspect of all as Swiatek faced Osaka in a match that will be talked about for years to come.