The Madrid Open director has responded after former champion Ons Jabeur claimed that the tournament “favoured men” and needed to “respect women” more. The tournament was embroiled in a sexism storm last year and Feliciano Lopez confessed that they did a few things that “shouldn’t happen”, but he still thought Jabeur’s comments were unfair.
Jabeur launched a scathing review of the Madrid Open after beating Jelena Ostapenko on Monday. Asked why she played so well in the Spanish capital, the world No. 9 went on an impassioned rant, saying: “The conditions and the fact that they annoy me here by favouring men.”
Discussing sexism in tennis, she added: “I feel like we have a long way, especially here in Madrid and in Rome, in Europe in general. I feel like they need to respect women more and they need to respect how we are playing.”
The tournament director has now directly addressed Jabeur’s claims, explaining that it was important to “move on” from last year’s issues. Asked to respond to her comments, Lopez told Sky Sports: “I think we did a few things last year that, I mean, shouldn’t happen, I have to say. And we learned from our mistakes.”
However, he still didn’t think that the 2022 champion’s comments were fair. “But I have to say that we were the same tournament to pay the same prize money to women and men. And so I don’t think it’s fair that someone might think that we are not treating men and women equally,” he continued.
“We’re doing a great job I think at that matter so I understand the frustration on certain things because there are a lot of things that can happen during the tournament with transportation, with practice sessions. But we try to be equal, we try to be fair all the time. So I think we have to move on and try to be fair to everyone.”
12 months ago, the tournament came under fire for several issues. Fans called out the skimpier outfits that ball girls wore, as they were provided with crop tops, skirts and knee-high socks while the ball boys wore standard t-shirts and shorts. Following the backlash, the ball girls were seen dressed in longer tops and baggy shorts for the men’s final.
There was also cake-gate – when Aryna Sabalenka was given a significantly smaller cake than Carlos Alcaraz despite sharing the same birthday. It prompted Victoria Azarenka to hit out at the “difference in treatment” at the tournament on social media, which didn’t go down well with Lopez, who said he was “surprised by this reaction”.
When Azarenka won the women’s doubles title with Beatriz Haddad Maia, beating Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula, all four finalists were prevented from speaking during the trophy ceremony. They later received letters of apology from the tournament.
Addressing the controversy, Lopez added: “Last year, I have to accept that there is things that – for example, that issue with the doubles finals, we apologised and we moved on and everyone’s happy. We have meetings with WTA players, ATP players, always willing to help and I think this is the most important thing that we move on and there’s a lot of things that we can still do in the future.”
