Amelie Mauresmo, the former world number one in her first year as the French Open's first female tournament director, says nine of this year's 10 night sessions at Roland Garros have involved men's matches because women's tennis currently has less "appeal".

Former French star Mauresmo said she tried on a daily basis to find a women's pairing with the star power or a match-up worthy of being highlighted in the separate night session on Court Philippe Chatrier.

"I admit it was tough," 42-year-old former Australian Open winner Mauresmo said.

The last of the 10 night sessions was scheduled for Wednesday, and the only women's match that got the prime-time treatment — part of a deal with a streaming service — was France's Alize Cornet's victory over Jelena Ostapenko in the second round.

Mauresmo said having just one match in each night session made it "more difficult to have" that be only a women's match.

"That's the general [reasons] for the men's matches."

She added: "My goal was, when I was doing the schedule every day, to try and see, from the first round, when the draw came out … what match in the woman's draw can I put there?"

Her session with reporters was held the morning after 13-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal's epic quarter-final victory over defending champion Novak Djokovic in Tuesday's night session.

The match lasted four hours and 12 minutes, finishing after 1am on Wednesday and leaving some of the 15,000 or so spectators unable to use public transportation to get home.

"That's actually a key issue that needs to be settled, and that will be one of our priorities in the future," Mauresmo said.

"We haven't planned anything yet, but obviously we need to organise ourselves differently with the Department of Transport of Paris with bus systems, with the underground system.

"If we continue with these night sessions in this direction, people need to leave the stadium late enough and make sure that they have a way to come back home, as they should."

AP