Why Jannik Sinner should be delighted with the Australian Open potentially scrapping best-of-five set matches

The new tournament director of the Australian Open has made headlines this make by suggesting a radical overhaul of the tennis scoring system.

New Tennis Australia chief executive Andrew Abdo, who has taken the reigns from Craig Tiley, has recently debated whether all Grand Slam matches need to be best-of-five sets.

“Maybe in the future, Slams at the different rounds, or at different lengths of duration, maybe we’re not playing best-of-five all the way through, maybe the point scoring system changes,” said Abdo.

The comments have already been controversial with fans, while some of the top players on the ATP Tour are yet to react to the potential break of tradition.

However, there is one player who could massively benefit if Grand Slams switched to a best-of-three set format – and it’s not Novak Djokovic.

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While many believe Djokovic will be boosted due to the short time frame, it is actually world No 1 Jannik Sinner who should be delighted with the scoring change.

Sinner is notoriously ropey when matches got the distance and he currently sits on a 7-12 win-loss record in five-set matches, which is strangely disappointing for a player as dominant as him.

Since the 2024 Roland Garros final, where he was beaten in a thrilling five-set semi final against Carlos Alcaraz, Sinner has lost five matches than went that distance, and only won one.

That came against Miomir Kecmanovic in the opening round of Wimbledon, but he’s suffered defeats against Juan Manuel Cerundolo, Djokovic, Alcaraz, and Daniil Medvedev.

It’s become a real worry for Sinner that would be instantly remove overnight should Grand Slams introduce a best-of-three formats.

We already know how dominate Sinner has become in three set contests over the years, particularly at ATP 1000 level.

The Italian has won every Masters event he’s entered in 2026 and his only defeat in a three-set match this year came against Jakub Mensik at the Qatar Open.

If best-of-five contests were eradicated, Sinner might just become even more dominant.

Jannik Sinner’s career five-set record