Female players ‘ready to handle five sets’ says WTA tour player as debate goes on
Former World No.2 Paula Badosa believes women are ready to play five sets as there is an increasing discussion about doing just that.
The argument for women to play five-setters was put into the spotlight by new United States Tennis Association CEO Craig Tiley who raised the idea in the final tournament of his tenure as head of Tennis Australia.
“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,” the man credited with revolutionising the first Slam of the year said.
That has put a lot of oxygen into a debate that had been going on for years but it now seems more likely than ever that the rule could be put in place and former World No.2 Badosa has given her backing to the idea.
“Look, my opinion is that we are ready to handle five sets,” she told TennisHead.
“I mean, we practice every day, we’ve been training for all our lives, and I think tennis and the athletes we have now in our sport are super strong, and it has evolved so much during the years, you know?
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“So I think we are ready to do that, but also you have to consider the scheduling, the recovery. Um, it’s not easy to do all this kind of stuff.”
One influential voice in her support for the idea is current World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka who suggested she would have more Grand Slam titles to her name if matches began to go to five sets.
“Yeah, let’s do that,” she said ahead of Indian Wells. “I feel like I would have probably more Grand Slams. I feel like physically I’m really strong, and I’m pretty confident that my body can handle that.
“So let’s do it… Well, I don’t know. I guess it’s a lot of fitness work to be done for others, but I feel like we’re in a sport and we have to care about ourselves, and I feel like if they do it, I have huge advantage.”
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