Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic agreed their French Open quarter-final started too late after the four-hour match ended at 01:15 in Paris [00:15 BST].

Asked if it was too late to be playing, Nadal said: "It is without a doubt. I understand television pays a lot of money but we need to find a balance."

Djokovic added: "Broadcasters say it's going to be night match, day match. They give the money. They decide."

Spanish fifth seed Nadal, going for a record-extending 14th men's singles title at Roland Garros, won 6-2 4-6 6-2 7-6 (7-4) against Serbia's Djokovic.

Despite the late finish to Nadal's win over Djokovic and temperatures dropping to about 10C, few fans decided to leave Court Philippe-Chatrier and many of those who stayed were wrapped up in blankets.

The clay-court Grand Slam introduced night sessions for the 2021 tournament, although they were not fully open to fans because of coronavirus restrictions in France.

The night matches are shown on Amazon Prime in France and have started at 20:45 local time.

Nadal's win over Djokovic was the second-latest finish in French Open history, falling 11 minutes short of the 2020 quarter-final between the Spaniard and Italy's Jannik Sinner.

"There are difference of opinions about the night sessions," said world number one Djokovic.

"I think they are starting too late. But again, TV decides. That's the world we are living in."

Women's matches 'not as attractive' for TV audience

Former Wimbledon and Australian Open champion Amelie Mauresmo is in her first year as the tournament director of the French Open.

"As far as I'm concerned, night sessions in the stadium are definitely appropriate, because it was always full to the brim every night," she said.

"There was a real enthusiasm. People could actually work during the day and yet watch the match during the evening.

"I'm learning a lot of things regarding the scheduling of the tournament. We will actually have a feedback session on this at the end, but it's just 10 night matches overall."

The late sessions, which have separate ticket sales from the day time, have also drawn criticism for the lack of women's matches.

Only one of the 10 night sessions this year has been a women's match, when France's Alize Cornet beat Latvian 13th seed Jelena Ostapenko in three sets on Thursday.

Mauresmo said it was "more difficult" to put women's matches on late.

"In this era we are in right now - and as a woman, a former woman's player, I don't feel bad or unfair saying this - you have more attraction and appeal, in general, for the men's matches," said the former world number one.

'I am pouring everything I have to play this tournament'

Afterwards, 21-time major champion Nadal thanked the near-15,000 crowd for showing their "love".

He will play third seed Alexander Zverev, who beat Carlos Alcaraz in Tuesday's day session, in the semi-finals on Friday.

"It has been a very emotional night for me," said Nadal. "I'm still playing for nights like this."

Nadal had feared his career was over because of a chronic foot problem which restricted him to only one tournament in the final seven months of 2021.

The problem flared up again during the Italian Open and he said the crowd at Roland Garros "have been amazing since the beginning of the tournament" because they probably "know that I'm not going to be here a lot more times".

He added: "I said in Rome that I am going to have my doctor here with me. Having the doctor here, you can do things that help. It's not the moment to talk about that. We will talk about that when my tournament finishes.

"I am pouring everything that I have to try to play this tournament with the best conditions possible. Honestly, I don't know what can happen after it, but here I think I'm going to be fine.

"I have what I have in the foot. If we are not able to find an improvement or small solution to that then it's becoming super difficult for me. I am just enjoying every day that I have the chance to be here without thinking much about what can happen in the future.

"Of course, I will keep fighting to find a solution but, for the moment, we haven't."