Andy Murray has experienced many best-of-five set matches in his decorated career.
Murray retired from tennis at the Paris Olympics last year, ending his 19-year professional career in a doubles match alongside fellow Briton Dan Evans.
The three-time Grand Slam champion has not completely left tennis since then, with Murray coaching Novak Djokovic for a six-month period this year.
Now, in a new interview with The Tennis Podcast, Murray has spoken about a number of current issues in the sport and what he thinks should be done.
Andy Murray says if he thinks Grand Slams should remove best-of-five set matches
Last week, former British number one and Murray’s former Davis Cup captain John Lloyd called for best-of-five set matches to be removed from Grand Slams.
There have been a lot of discussion and complaints surrounding the amount of tennis that is being played over the last year and now Murray has given his say.
What Nick Kyrgios thinks should change about Grand Slams
In his verdict, Murray admitted that he would not watch a whole best-of-five set match, and spoke about the various stakeholder conflicts within tennis right now.
“I think for me best of five was great for better players,” said Murray. “The longer the matches go on the more chance there is to come back and figure things out. So as a player I loved it. As a fan, I personally would not sit and watch a best of five set match now. It’s too long. I have a family, I have other things to do. I would not watch, but tennis fans seem to enjoy best of five format.
“I think it comes back to what is actually the problem with tennis. What is it that everyone wants to change? What is so bad about it? Not everyone agrees on what the issues actually are. Players will always complain. I did when I was a player and a lot of the things that players are complaining about now, were complaints 20 years ago, whether it is prize money related, too many tournaments, the schedule is wrong.
“The players will always complain about stuff. But I think for things to change, probably the players need to be very clear about what it is and what they actually want. What are actually the problems and does everyone agree on them.
“You might hear players say there is too many tournaments and we play too much but generally it’s the top players that say that. Players ranked 70 in the world maybe don’t want fewer tournaments, they maybe want as many tournaments as possible to earn money and more ranking points. Whereas the top 10 players in the world generally feel like they want to play less, which is understandable, they play more matches.
“But they also want to play exhibitions as well. So it’s like there is too many tournaments but the mixed doubles at the US Open, that’s a new event, and we all want to play in that, it’s an amazing idea, we all want to play more tennis because we are getting paid lots of money and appearances fees to play. But then lots of other tennis players, particularly the doubles players, were hating that idea, but the top players loved it.
“So it’s hard to get all the players to always agree on things. There’s too many tournaments. But then we are going to put a new Masters series in Saudi Arabia and [it’s like] that’s a great idea, we all want to play that event, it’s really good. So it’s hard to know exactly what it is that all the tournaments want, what the Grand Slams want, what the players want, and to come to some agreement it’s very difficult.”
Who would you like to see Andy Murray coach next?
Andy Murray’s record in best-of-five set matches
It is unsurprising that Murray preferred playing best-of-five set matches, as he generally came out on top in them.
Murray struggled more in the format in the early stages of his career, before making himself really difficult to beat when matches went the distance at Grand Slams.
The former world number one won 25 of the 38 five set matches he played at Grand Slams, with Murray also having an impressive record in the Davis Cup when that also had best-of-five set matches.
| Andy Murray in best-of-five set Grand Slam matches | |
| Win-loss Record | 25-13 (65.8%) |
| Win-loss Record in Grand Slam finals | 1-0 (100%) |
One of those best-of-five set matches that he won was also a Grand Slam final, with Murray beating Djokovic in the 2012 US Open final to win his first major title.
This was the only one of Murray’s 11 Grand Slam finals which went the distance, with six straight sets matches and the other four going four sets.
Receive exclusive tennis news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
