Capitalizing on the thrilling 10 hours of semifinal tennis on the men’s side and fresh off of Elena Rybakina’s women’s singles win, Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley wants to put the idea out there for the women to play best of five sets at AO as early as 2027.
He is not suggesting best of five sets throughout the tournament but from the quarterfinals onward.
The players would have to agree to this idea which Tiley openly admits they may not.
Not An Easy Change To Implement
There would be a lot of factors to fall into place for the women to do this in the short or long term. Conditioning and training would be affected. The calendar would have to be revisited.
It would be a significant physical test at the beginning of the season for those advancing to the latter stages of the tournament. Some argue that the beginning of the year is a good time to do it; others worry that a lack of match play prior to the Australian Open would create more injuries. Changing course during the tournament between best of three and best of five would also be unusual.
There will be a lot of discussion on this in the coming months. In my opinion, it is comparable to making the Super Bowl a five quarter game while the rest of the NFL season is comprised of four quarter games. Or if the PGA played 90 holes instead of 72 at the Masters. It is true that the men’s tennis players have always navigated best of five set Grand Slams when other tournaments on the ATP calendar are best of three, but the amount of sets and length of matches needed to win has never changed during the course of a tournament.
Regardless of where you fall in this debate, the Australian Open semifinal and final matches were of outstanding quality, and maiden champions Elena Rybakina and Carlos Alcaraz were crowned. Fans loved the high level of tennis, and everyone calling this the “Happy Slam” with such fortitude makes me want to venture to Melbourne one of these years despite the long flight and time difference.
