Australian Open: Tennis boss wants women to play best-of-five sets – and it could happen soon
This year’s marathon Australian Open men’s semi-final matches show that there is an appetite for more five-set matches at Grand Slams and Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley believes that is the route to go in the women’s draw.
Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev battled for five hours and 27 minutes in their last-four encounter before the Spaniard won while Novak Djokovic required four hours and nine minutes to beat two-time defending champion Jannik Sinner.
On the women’s side, both semi-finals of the season-opening Grand Slam failed to go the distance Aryna Sabalenka beating Elina Svitolina and Elena Rybakina defeat Iga Swiatek.
The final did go to three sets as Rybakina defeated top seed and world No 1 Sabalenka 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 on Saturday.
But the semi-finals have once again added fuel to the flames about men playing best-of-five sets at the majors and women playing three, and Tiley is keen to make changes, as soon as next year.
“You can’t replicate that (men’s) semi-final day. That was amazing,” the Australian Open tournament director told AAP. “I’m still like getting chills just thinking about it, and then you can’t replicate that final last side 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.
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“So it’s something we should put on the agenda and start talking to the players about it because there’s some matches in those last rounds which would have been fascinating had they been three out of five sets.
“Now I don’t know whether the players would want to do it or not, but it is something we need to consider on the women’s side.”
Women’s tennis players have in the past stated they would be willing to play five-set matches, but television broadcasters are not too keen as it would make scheduling a lot more complicated.
However, the fact that it would only be from the quarter-finals onwards, it could work as there are only a few matches on per day at that stage of the Grand Slams.
