French Open tournament director confirms big change for men's semifinals schedule in 2025

French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo has confirmed a big change in the schedule of the mega-event this year. The second Grand Slam of the year will begin on May 25, where players from all over the world will participate to showcase their talent and secure the ultimate prize.

According to a recent report by the English media outlet Daily Express, the tournament’s director, Mauresmo, has confirmed a significant change for the upcoming edition of the mega-event. According to the report, the second semifinal in men’s tennis will begin at 7 PM, 90 minutes later than the scheduled start time last year.

The decision is likely to receive backlash from different quarters in the tennis community, largely because of what happened last year. In 2024, one of the matches featuring the former world number one and then defending champion, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, faced Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti. The match started at 10:30 at night on Friday and finished as late as 3 AM on Saturday.

Following, a lot of players questioned the schedule of the tournament, including the likes of men’s reigning world number two Carlos Alcaraz, the 2023 US Open winner, America’s Coco Gauff and women’s current world number two Iga Swiatek.

“I was watching Novak’s game. It started too late, I’m not gonna lie,” said Alcaraz back then. “I definitely think it's not healthy. It may be not fair for those who have to play late because it does ruin your schedule,” said Gauff. “It's not easy to play and then it's not like we're going to fall asleep one hour after the match,” stated Swiatek. “Usually it takes us, like, four hours to even chill, and you need to do recovery, media. It's not like the work ends when the match point.”

This year, in the men’s singles category, Spain’s Alcaraz will be defending his title, whereas in the women’s category, Swiatek will be defending her crown.