Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley recently floated the idea for women to play best-of-five sets from the quarterfinals onwards.
The proposal came after the men’s semifinal day at Melbourne Park, which featured two thrilling five-set bouts, with eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz overcoming Alexander Zverev, and runner-up Novak Djokovic dethroning last year’s winner Jannik Sinner.
As per TNT, Tiley said: “You can’t replicate that (men’s) semi-final day. That was amazing. I’m still getting chills just thinking about it, and then you can’t replicate that final last night on the women’s side. It was unbelievable.
“One of the things I’ve been saying now is that I think there should be three out of five sets for women.
“We should look at the last few matches – the quarters and the semis and the finals – and make the women’s side three out of five.”
After hearing the idea, former US Open finalist Greg Rusedski was not too keen.
Should women play best-of-five sets at Grand Slams?
Greg Rusedski discusses the potential for women to play best of five
In an episode of ‘Off Court with Greg‘, Rusedski said: “I’m not so sure about this. I quite like the traditional format of two out of three. It’s a bit bold. You have to try new things sometimes. But I am traditional, and I think you have to keep it as two out of three sets.
“In the old days, when I was playing the Masters series, you would play two out of three sets until you got the final and then it would be three out of five sets.
“Imagine that at all the majors. Instead of having it from the quarters onwards, why don’t we make the finals three out of five sets?
“Imagine what they would have changed last year, when Anisimova played Swiatek in the finals. She would have been much more relaxed, because having lost the opening set 6-0, she would have thought alright, I have another two sets to go at least.
“It would settle her down and maybe she would have played better. Fortunately, she played a lot better in the US Open final the month afterwards, but I don’t think you would have that 0-0 occasion like at Wimbledon and that would be a good solution.
“Finals tickets are so popular for the men’s and women’s at the majors, and I think why not make the final three out of five sets? That would be my solution. So if it happens, I want credit for that one!”
What Aryna Sabalenka has previously said about women playing best-of-five sets
At Wimbledon last year, WTA number one Aryna Sabalenka had her say on women playing best of five sets at Grand Slams.
As per ESPN, she said: “Probably physically I’m one of the strongest ones, so maybe it would benefit me. But I think I’m not ready to play five sets.
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“I think it’s too much on the woman’s body. I think we’re not ready for this amount of tennis. I think it would increase the amount of injuries. So I think this is not something I would consider.”
Sabalenka recently lost the Australian Open final to Elena Rybakina, with the Kazakh star claiming her second Grand Slam title.
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