Osaka-Sabalenka gets rare women's night match at Roland Garros - ESPN

The French Open will stage a women's match in its night session on Monday for the first time in three years.

With the top half of the men's draw featuring few household names, the blockbuster women's fourth-round encounter between world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and Naomi Osaka will end a run of 33 straight men's matches.

Tournament director Amelie Mauresmo has been criticized for reserving the primetime, one-match slot almost exclusively for men's singles contests. Since the session was introduced in 2021, only four of the first 60 matches have been women's singles and none since 2023.

Speaking about the possibility of playing in the night session after her third-round win, Osaka said: «I'm so used to not playing night matches here and playing night matches in the US Open or something like that that I don't even associate this tournament with night matches.»

Mauresmo has previously defended the reliance on men's matches by citing value for ticket holders and the potential for women's contests, which are played over best-of-three sets instead of best-of-five, to be very quick.

New WTA chair Valerie Camillo met Mauresmo at Roland Garros this week, when she called for a greater representation of women's matches.