Patrick Mouratoglou, who coaches Naomi Osaka, has given his views on the empty seats visible during big matches at Roland Garros. The tournament has long suffered from having sparse crowds when its Grand Slam counterparts in Australia, England and the US rarely have an empty seat for the matches at the business end of their events.
Mouratoglou is a well-known and highly respected figure in world tennis. The Frenchman is a tennis coach and commentator, and famously runs the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy situated in the South of France. Mouratoglou was Serena Williams’s coach from 2012 to 2022, and also looked after the likes of Grigor Dimitrov and Holger Rune.
Currently Naomi Osaka’s coach, Patrick Mouratoglou shared an Instagram slide show in which he talked at length about tennis issues and specifically about the lack of crowds in Paris.
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First, Mouratoglou outlined the issues. He said that the attendance at some matches was eye-opening:
"The empty stands on the centre court at Roland Garros is a subject that we spoke about on air because it's really shocking and it's really sad to be on the center court of Roland-Garros Grand Slam with some of the best players in the world and seeing the stands, 75, 80, sometimes 90% empty. This is really shocking."
Mouratoglou went on to compare the Roland Garros experience to that at Wimbledon and the other Major tournaments around the world:
"Have you seen the center court of Wimbledon like that ever? Ever once? No. Thank you. I've been on the Grand Slams for 20 years, every single year. And I can tell you it's not the same in the other Grand Slams. I don't have the full explanation. What I can say is that this is something we really need to solve, even for the players. You know, you're in a Grand Slam."
Finally, the world-renowned coach gave the only explanation he could think of for why important matches in Paris are played in front of largely empty stadiums:
"On the center court you have some of the best players in the world, and it's completely empty and there are tickets. The tickets are sold. One explanation that I heard, I don't know if it's true, is that French people are too attached to lunch. From 12 to maybe 4 o'clock. It's empty. And that's a really big problem."
Mouratoglou's views were brought into sharp focus by the early matches ar Roland Garros on June 3. Those matches had many empty seats.
Patrick Mouratoglou's views were confirmed by Aryna Sabalenka's quarterfinal match against Zheng Qinwen
World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka's quarterfinal victory over Zheng Qinwen was overshadowed by its poor attendance. Large sections of the 15,000-seater stadium were unoccupied for the morning match, prompting the Belarusian to blame the scheduling for the sparse crowd in her post-match interview:
“It was a big match and probably would make more sense to put us a little bit later just so more people could watch it. I definitely think that would make more sense to kind of like move our match for a little bit later.”
There are several solutions to the problems that Mouratoglou raises. The tournament organisers will need to take all views on board to try and resolve the situation and ensure the stadia are full for such important games.
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