Amelie Mauresmo apologies for French Open scheduling comments, claims they were taken out of context

French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo has responded after coming under fire when she said women’s tennis has less appeal than that of the men's game.

Only one women’s match has been scheduled for the night session during Roland Garros, which has drawn ire from those in the tennis world and the director of the Grand Slam then expressed her feelings on the matter.

The 2006 Wimbledon champion said there was more appeal to the men's game than women's, hence the scheduling of more men's matches at night. This was received negatively by the tennis community, with several fans and players firing back at the Frenchwoman.

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Following the backlash, the Frenchwoman claimed her statement was taken out of context and has now issued an apology via Tennis Channel . "First of all the comments that I made were taken out of the wider picture, out of the context,” she began. "And I want to say sorry to the players that really felt bad about what I said.

Again, I think the people who know me, who've known me on and off the court, throughout my career, throughout everything that I've done, know that I'm a big fighter for equal rights and women's tennis, women in general." The 42-year-old insisted the decision was made to host more men’s matches in the evening because women’s best-of-three matches are shorter than the best-of-five played by their counterparts.

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She added: "Concerning the scheduling, specifically for the night matches, my say was that because we have one match only it's really tougher to schedule a woman's match. We have to take into consideration the length. I feel it's the fair kind of thing to do for the ticket holders.

"Next year, in order to be able to be more fair to the women players - to both categories actually - it would be good to maybe have the possibility to put on two matches, or maybe a women's match plus a doubles match, to try to find a better solution to be fair to everyone."