Players on the World Tennis Association (WTA) Tour offered a \u200brange of opinions on Tuesday on the idea of women\u2019s matches becoming best-of-five sets from \u200cthe quarter-finals onward at Grand Slam events, a concept backed by newly-named United States Tennis Association Chief Executive Officer Craig Tiley.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s tennis consists of best-of-three set matches, while men\u2019s matches at Grand Slam events are best-of-five.<\/p>\n
Tiley, the longtime head of the Australian Open renowned for championing \u200binnovation in the sport, has argued that research shows interest grows as a match goes on.<\/p>\n
Iga \u200bSwiatek, who has won six majors, did not understand why the sport would want to \u2060make matches longer in an era of ever-shrinking attention spans.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a weird approach in the world where \u200beverything is becoming faster. So I don\u2019t know if the audience honestly would like \u200bthat,\u201d she tells reporters at Indian Wells.<\/p>\n
She also voiced concerns that there could be a dip in quality as players get tired.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if we would be able to keep the quality for five sets. Men are more physically strong and they can handle it better. Also, we have never practiced in a way to prepare for that, so we would need to change \u200bour whole calendar, because the Grand Slams would be so tough that I don\u2019t think we would have time to \u200cprepare for \u2060any other tournaments,\u201d she \u200badds.<\/p>\n
Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina echoed Swiatek\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou start in one format, and then it gets longer, so mentally, to be ready to play so many sets if it goes to that point, I think it\u2019s not easy. It\u2019s a tricky topic, and me, as a player, I would say I wouldn\u2019t \u200bwant to play three out \u200bof five, to be \u2060honest,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Other players said the change would play to their strengths.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt probably would favour me because I\u2019m physically up there with the best, but I probably wouldn\u2019t want to see that happen, and if it \u200bwere to \u2060happen, I would prefer it to be the whole tournament, not just the quarters. I think changing the format in the middle of the tournament defeats the purpose of the playing field,\u201d says Coco Gauff, the winner \u200bof three majors.<\/p>\n
Power hitter Aryna Sabalenka enthusiastically backs the concept.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, let\u2019s \u2060do \u200bthat,\u201d says the world number one, who has won four Grand \u200bSlam events.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I would have probably more Grand Slams. I feel like physically I\u2019m really strong, and I\u2019m pretty confident that \u200bmy body can handle that. So let\u2019s do it,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n
\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15058,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-27683","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Women\u2019s tennis consists of best-of-three set matches, while men\u2019s matches at Grand Slam events are best-of-five.","published_date":"","news_description":"Women\u2019s tennis consists of best-of-three set matches, while men\u2019s matches at Grand Slam events are best-of-five.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27685,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27683\/revisions\/27685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=27683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}