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The remarks were made as eyebrows were raised about scheduling
of matches. One night match has been on the programme of the
claycourt Grand Slam every day at 2100 local time (1900GMT) from
the first Monday until the quarter-finals.
However, nine out of the 10 games scheduled as a night session
have been men's matches, raising questions about how women have
been getting the short end of the stick at major tournaments.
In response to questions about scheduling, Mauresmo said men's
matches have more "appeal."
"First of all the comments that I made were taken out of the
wider picture, out of the context," former Grand Slam champion
Mauresmo told Tennis Channel on Thursday.
"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."
Mauresmo said that it was difficult to put only women's players
on the schedule for spectators with a single ticket for the
evening only, adding that the tournament would look into
tweaking the format next year.
"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 because we have to take into
consideration the length," Mauresmo said.
"It's the fair thing to do for the ticketholders.
"Next year to be more fair to the women's players it would be
good to maybe have the possibility to put two matches or maybe a
women's match plus a doubles match."
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
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