The Australian Open is in full swing with all of the top players now featuring on the court at least once during the first Grand Slam of 2025.
Novak Djokovic had praise for Nishesh Basavareddy after beating him in four sets and the Serb looks to be in fine form.
Elsewhere, routine wins were secured by Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Taylor Fritz – although Daniil Medvedev was made to work with a five-set victory.
In the women’s draw, Coco Gauff prevailed with ease, whilst Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka both remain on course to add to their Grand Slam collection.
A lot of talk in tennis at the moment is about the length of matches that are played in the opening round of Grand Slam events.
Nick Kyrgios has claimed before that he wants the men to play three sets up to the quarter-finals – but that view isn’t shared by legendary Swedish player Mats Wilander.
Mats Wilander makes claim on the number of sets being played in Grand Slam events
Wilander not only thinks that that men’s draw should remain at five sets but he thinks it’s time that the women followed suit at the major events.
He believes that it’s time for tennis to make it level across the board in terms of the time spent on the court at these events and likes the five-set format.
He said live on Eurosport: “Absolutely no chance should it be best of three sets. It has to be the best of five sets. I think that it is time that the women start playing best of five. I think that’s more difficult, not for them but for the scheduling part. But why not these days?
“The men 100% have to stay five sets. That’s the big difference. The great players win the five-setters, and the good players can push, but they don’t have the stamina.”
What Serena Williams said about women playing five-set matches
It’s a topic of discussion that has been going around for some time. When it was discussed that females were going to start getting equal pay, some out-of-touch people started questioning whether the men received more because they played more.
Williams is one of the best players to have lived and she was under no illusions how she felt about playing five-set matches back in 2019.
She told Essentially Sports: “I think one of the things about that argument, the reason it’s null and void, is because we’ve said we’re willing and ready.
“I think every female athlete is ready to play five sets. Actually, the tournaments have said, no, we like you guys playing three sets. I don’t think it’s a fair argument at all.”
Ultimately, if the women played five sets, the men and women would have to play their respective tournaments at different times.
There is no way that the schedule would allow for both draws to go five sets all the way through and the logistics of it all just don’t feel practical.
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