Tennis fans deliver verdict on if women should play best-of-five sets at Grand Slams

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Two women have already qualified for the Australian Open semifinals.

Elina Svitolina and Aryna Sabalenka beat Coco Gauff and Iva Jovic, respectively, to advance.

Both players did so in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2, and 6-3, 6-0.

On the men’s side, Carlos Alcaraz defeated Alex de Minaur in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2, 6-1, to join Alexander Zverev in the semis.

Alcaraz needed to win three sets to secure his spot in the semis, while Svitolina and Sabalenka only needed two.

That’s because women play best-of-three sets at Grand Slams, and men play best-of-five.

For years, fans and pundits have discussed whether women should play the same number of sets as their male counterparts.

Looking to end the debate once and for all, we asked our fans on TalkingPoints whether they thought women should play best-of-five sets at Grand Slams.

Tennis fans don’t think women should play best-of-five sets

53.22% of our fans voted for women to continue playing best-of-three sets at major tournaments.

33.26% voted for women to play best-of-five sets for the entire tournament, while 13.52% voted for best-of-five sets to begin from a specific round.

Combining those percentages, 46.78% of fans want to see women play best-of-five sets in some capacity.

The numbers show that fans want best-of-three sets to remain, but it’s not exactly an overwhelming majority.

So what did our fans actually say?

“I think from the quarterfinals they should play best-of-five,” said one fan.

“Should be best out of five starting from the quarters,” added another.

“From [the] quarter finals,” said one fan on TalkingPoints.

“Yes, from the quarterfinals onward,” another tennis fan suggested.

There’s certainly an interest in seeing the women play best-of-five sets in Grand Slam quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals.

But how would that have affected things at this year’s Australian Open?

Perhaps Jovic would have battled back vs Sabalenka, or Gauff would have had more time to figure things out against Svitolina.

One fan disagreed with the quarterfinal suggestion and instead proposed that best-of-five be saved for the final.

“Just the championship match only should be best of five, it will make it even more special,” they said.

Others were firmly against a switch to the longer format.

“I feel that the injury issue would become more of a problem for some players,” said one fan.

“I like the two out of three sets for both players and fans.

“Women are wonderful athletes, but physiologically different than men. Keep it as it is – best two out of three!” added another.

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However, a few fans wanted best-of-five sets for the entire women’s tournament.

“Yes, the full tournament,” said one fan on TalkingPoints.

“Full-time five,” added another.

It’s certainly interesting to hear different sides of the debate, but the likelihood is that we won’t see a rule change any time soon.

Have women ever played best-of-five sets?

Women haven’t played the best-of-five-set format at Grand Slams during the Open Era.

However, the US Open (then U.S. National Championships) used the format from 1891 to 1901 (except for 1893).

Every best-of-five set women’s Grand Slam final

Elisabeth Moore defeated Myrtle McAteer 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 in the last best-of-five women’s Grand Slam final.

The format has been seen elsewhere, though, including at the season-ending WTA Finals.

From 1986 to 1998, the WTA Finals used the best-of-five format.

Germany’s Steffi Graf was the most successful player at the event during that period, winning five titles.

It remains to be seen if the format will ever return, at Grand Slams or anywhere else on the WTA Tour.