{"id":403152,"date":"2026-02-02T01:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T01:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/403152\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T01:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T01:12:13","slug":"australian-open-wants-five-sets-for-women-next-year-but-players-dont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/403152\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Open wants five sets for women next year\u2026 but players don\u2019t"},"content":{"rendered":"

Women may have to play best-of-five-set matches at future grand-slam tournaments after Australian Open organisers proposed a radical format change from the quarter-finals onwards.<\/p>\n

Although the women\u2019s singles came to a thrilling conclusion on Saturday with a tight 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 victory for Elena Rybakina<\/a> over Aryna Sabalenka in the final, all of the other six matches in the latter stages were completed in straight sets. The two semi-finals combined lasted two hours and 56 minutes, which was considerably shorter than the combined duration of nine hours and 36 minutes for the two men\u2019s semis.<\/p>\n

That thrilling day of men\u2019s last-four action at Melbourne Park \u2014 where Carlos Alcaraz beat Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic overcame Jannik Sinner, both over five sets \u2014 has led the Australian Open tournament director<\/a>, Craig Tiley, to float the idea of extending women\u2019s matches. While the possibility of the same format in the men\u2019s and women\u2019s singles has long been debated, this is the first time that a grand-slam official has admitted on the record that it is a serious consideration.<\/p>\n

\"Carlos<\/p>\n

Alcaraz, right, receives the congratulations of Zverev after an epic semi-final that went the distance over five hours and 27 minutes<\/p>\n

AP PHOTO\/ASANKA BRENDON RATNAYAKE<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t replicate that semi-final day [in the men\u2019s draw],\u201d Tiley said. \u201cThat was amazing. I\u2019m still getting chills just thinking about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things I\u2019ve 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 \u2014 the quarters and the semis and the finals \u2014 and make the women\u2019s side three out of five sets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something we should put on the agenda and start talking to the players about, because there\u2019s some matches in those last rounds which would have been fascinating had they been three out of five sets. Now I don\u2019t know whether the players would want to do it or not, but it is something we need to consider on the women\u2019s side.\u201d<\/p>\n

If positive feedback is received from the majority of players on the WTA Tour, Tiley is prepared to implement the change as soon as next year. This would force the other grand-slam events, including Wimbledon, to potentially follow suit, although there is no requirement for the four major tournaments to use the same format.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly if we\u2019re going to do it and we think it\u2019s the right thing, we\u2019ll definitely go in 2027,\u201d Tiley said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing in the rules stopping that from happening. But we need to do it with really deep consultation with the players.<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

Gauff says that five sets would do her a favour from a \u201cphysicality standpoint\u201d but doesn\u2019t want change<\/p>\n

REUTERS\/EDGAR SU<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are going to be people who say this is ridiculous and others who say it is a good idea. The idea is to have a discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The grand slams have used the same format of a deciding set concluding with a ten-point tie-break if necessary since 2022, but have long resisted calls from some to change the number of sets contested in a women\u2019s match. <\/p>\n

One long-time argument from fans and even some male players privately is that women should play the best of five sets because they receive equal prize money to the men.<\/p>\n

The only women\u2019s event to have used a five-set format is the season-ending WTA Finals, which extended its final from 1984-98 before switching back to the best of three sets. Last year top female players expressed some reluctance to play longer matches when the idea was loosely floated during Wimbledon, where Iga Swiatek beat Amanda Anisimova in the first 6-0, 6-0 final since 1911.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably physically I\u2019m one of the strongest ones, so maybe it would benefit me,\u201d Sabalenka<\/a>, the world No1, said. \u201cBut I think I\u2019m not ready to play five sets. It\u2019s too much on the woman\u2019s body. We\u2019re not ready for this amount of tennis. I think it would increase the amount of injuries, so this is not something I would consider.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coco Gauff, the world No3, added: \u201cIt would favour me just from a physicality standpoint, but I do think it would kind of be a big change for the tour. I think it would be fine just keeping it how it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tiley\u2019s proposal is yet another indication of the way in which the Australian Open embraces innovation. It has been transformed into a three-week festival combining sport and entertainment, this year attracting a record total attendance of 1.37million, up 150,000 on last year.<\/p>\n

The event is clearly not standing still. Various changes to the on-court experience, such as the relocation of the umpire\u2019s chair and the end of warm-ups, are also being considered, and Tiley is aware another expansion of Melbourne Park may be required to cope with the demand for an event that has become a firm cultural fixture of the Australian summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cFans want to have the tennis experience; they want the activation,\u201d Tiley said. \u201cNow, we\u2019re a music festival, we\u2019re a food festival. We\u2019re going to become more of a fashion festival. This year was the first year in really making an extensive statement in a beauty and wellness festival.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wimbledon representatives were in attendance at Melbourne as per the usual custom and will have received another stark reminder of the need for its planned expansion to go through \u2014 the process is still subject to legal challenges after 4\u00bd years. The total attendance at the All England Club at last year\u2019s championships was 548,770, which is about 40 per cent of the number recorded at Melbourne Park this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Women may have to play best-of-five-set matches at future grand-slam tournaments after Australian Open organisers proposed a radical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-403152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}