I would love women to play five sets, says Amelie Mauresmo

[TheNachoMan]

both men’s and women’s Slams becoming Bo3 with Bo5 reserved for only the last 2 to 3 rounds.

How to kill tennis in one sentence

 

[Turner]

What problem are we trying to solve exactly?
Do the viewers want women's Bo5? If they do, it makes sense, otherwise not really.

I don't watch women's tennis, so I would prefer Bo1 or, even better, a separate tournament.

 

[MichaelNadal]

If peak Venus was around I'd be all for it

 

[optic yellow]

If Mauresmo is able to push through a Bo5 format for the women’s RG final (and maybe SF), I could see that triggering a chain of changes that leads to both men’s and women’s Slams becoming Bo3 with Bo5 reserved for only the last 2 to 3 rounds. While I prefer keeping the men’s side at Bo5 for all rounds, I could see such a format as an acceptable medium that achieves (1) equal match formats for men and women and (2) maintaining Bo5 for men in the most critical matches (SF and F).

Any men's slam matches going to BO3 is a complete non-starter.

 

[thrust]

There is literally zero reason that they shouldn't those last few rounds. I guess the issue will become their conditioning if the match goes long. Two exhausted players out there in the fifth just making errors wouldn't be much fun to watch.

Finals- For Sure
Semi's-Perhaps

 

[a10best]

How about this BO5:
first 3 sets are normal scoring as it is now.
set 4: 10 pt tiebreak
set 5: 12 pt tiebreak

The player who wins 2 out of 3 sets in the initial 3 sets gets automatic 1 or 2 pts to start each TB.

 

[petetennis54]

If Mauresmo is able to push through a Bo5 format for the women’s RG final (and maybe SF), I could see that triggering a chain of changes that leads to both men’s and women’s Slams becoming Bo3 with Bo5 reserved for only the last 2 to 3 rounds. While I prefer keeping the men’s side at Bo5 for all rounds, I could see such a format as an acceptable medium that achieves (1) equal match formats for men and women and (2) maintaining Bo5 for men in the most critical matches (SF and F).

I agree but would like to see bo5 in qtrs on for both men and women. The difference between match lengths this year men vs women is astounding. If you buy a night ticket would you rather have a 3+ hour match or a 1.5 hour match? A day ticket may be different because there are other matches to see.

 

[petetennis54]

They don’t need to either. I don’t get why some just can’t accept that men and women are different. It’s not a big deal.

Then why equal $$$$?

 

[Rafa4LifeEver]

Another Telegraph article, it seems from the Guardian to the Telegraph their sports coverage is ok.

I would love women to play five sets, says Amelie Mauresmo​

Link to article.

Amelie Mauresmo, tournament director at Roland Garros, would "love" to change the women's final to best-of-five sets.

Last year Mauresmo became the first former grand slam champion to take on a directorial role at a major event, and is also the first woman to do so at the French Open.

With one edition now under her belt, the former Wimbledon champion told Telegraph Sport that she felt "more prepared, relaxed and knowing exactly where I want the tournament to go" – and that could include a drastic change to the format for the women's event.

Although she says best-of-five sets would not work for the entire women's tournament, due to scheduling restrictions on site, she believes it could happen for the latter stages.

"What I’ve always thought, and this was also as a player, I would love to play a grand-slam final best-of-five or how it was at the year-end WTA championships," she said. "That is something that I would have really loved, and it’s definitely something that I would really think about, if that would add something to women’s tennis."

Currently the women play best-of-three sets at all of the major events, while the men play best-of-five. There was a brief period during the 1990s when women played the longer format in the final of the WTA tour-end event.

Asked about the feasibility of introducing longer matches from the quarter-finals onwards at Roland Garros, Mauresmo said it would need to be phased into the women's tournament over a few years.

"Maybe quarters, or maybe semis. The thing is, you cannot change it just like that. Because it asks a different preparation from the players. It would go through a different process of several years, maybe you start with the final."

Gender equality on show courts is 'tough'​

Mauresmo, 43, courted heavy criticism during her debut year as tournament director for scheduling men's matches for nine out of 10 night sessions on the main show court in Paris. Embarrassingly

She even had to apologise for saying the men's matches had "more attraction" in this era of tennis than women's.

The noise is unlikely to go away this year, as the first three night matches scheduled on Philippe-Chatrier have been men's matches, despite Frenchwoman and fifth seed Caroline Garcia playing her opening round on Monday.

Mauresmo still sticks by her decision-making and says she is happy with how things went last year.

"The first year was not easy, coming into the tournament I felt that I still had everything to learn. I knew it, and it’s what happened. A big part of my job is also scheduling, and I was pretty happy about last year and how I handled the thing, because my player past made it quite natural for me to know how it should be. That was ok."

No

 

[Zardoz7/12]

The poll was 50/50 is it's a split decision. Interesting.

 

[Robert F]

Time and time again we see women's finals end in quick 2 sets. Often in the Slams
Women need best of 5 to give the opportunity to create classic matches.

Think about Djoker vs. Tsitsipas in 2021. Looked like it was going to be a quick 3 sets, then Djoker turned it on and put on an impressive display of tennis.

At least institute 5 sets matches in the semis and finals of slams.

I don't think Muchova would've turned things around in a 3rd set, but it gives her a chance and it gives ticket holders more bang for their buck.

 

[Hood_Man]

They should play best of 5 for all 7 rounds.

Screw the schedule, make the tournament 3 weeks or split men's and women's into separate tournaments.

The women's game won't attract the same level of interest as the men's when highly sought after night sessions or a final can be over in an hour.

Best of 5 finals won't solve this either because how many players will bother to train for the endurance that only 2 players out of 128 will need to endure?

Yes, the ladies are not as strong as the men, but it's completely irrelevant because they're not playing against men!

 

[Mustard]

How about this BO5:
first 3 sets are normal scoring as it is now.
set 4: 10 pt tiebreak
set 5: 12 pt tiebreak

The player who wins 2 out of 3 sets in the initial 3 sets gets automatic 1 or 2 pts to start each TB.

Awful idea! Third set super-tiebreaks in doubles are awful enough.

 

[a10best]

Awful idea! Third set super-tiebreaks in doubles are awful enough.

Pickelball is an awful idea too. So you never know what they'll do.

We are losing top seeded players not making the semis or finals due to running out of gas in the 4th rd or qtrs.
5 hour+ matches are ridiculous and bad for the sport. No other sports does that. Slams need to be updated to 21st century.
Djokovic fans say he lost USO 22' to Medvedev due to his long semi.

Make a slam BO3 for both men and women; the 3rd set in a slam is the first player to win 10 games by 2 games (first to 12 for the men), then a 10 pt TB if it's 12-all.
I know that works for you. Let's run with that.

 

[Mustard]

Pickelball is an awful idea too. So you never know what they'll do.

We are losing top seeded players not making the semis or finals due to running out of gas in the 4th rd or qtrs.
5 hour+ matches are ridiculous and bad for the sport. No other sports does that. Slams need to be updated to 21st century.
Djokovic fans say he lost USO 22' to Medvedev due to his long semi.

Make a slam BO3 for both men and women; the 3rd set in a slam is the first player to win 10 games by 2 games (first to 12 for the men), then a 10 pt TB if it's 12-all.
I know that works for you. Let's run with that.

That's how you destroy tennis.

 

[jackson vile]

The women need to do the same work as men if they want the same pay, honestly they need to compete at the same level as well which they don’t.

The best female player couldn’t even dream to make it into the mens top 100

Put that in your pipe and smoke it

 

[Graf1stClass]

I find this funny, anyone who's around in the day there will remember that men's five sets were slogs (esp. grass) and most of the guys I spoke to hated to see them. We preferred the women's who had interesting decisive matches with no filler. We wanted the men's to be like that too. Best of five can give us epic showcases on rare occasions, but usually they're delaying the obvious and drag things on unnecessarily. Men usually did BO3 in any case.

The viewers don't care about fitness, they care about star power. Thus, why men's tennis is far and away more popular now and why women's tennis was more popular in the late 90s and 2000s and would have continued to be if the teenage U.S. Open finalists Emma/Leylah kept going. And why tennis is declining for both sides relatively

 

[ND-13]

Both would be 3 set matches once Nadal and Djokovic retire. That is what the TikTok Gen would prefer

 

[a10best]

That's how you destroy tennis.

It was destroyed with the marathon BO5 this past 13 yrs of Rafa/Novak or Murray. It was so, so boring that tennis media had to hype old Serena and now Gauff.
You could take a nap 2.5 hours and it's the start of the 4th set with these guys.
Roger v. Rafa is what made it exciting. contrasting styles. Before that Sampras - Agassi.
I know many tennis players who purposely missed Novak/Murray finals. You're better off trying to master some trick shots or playing frisbee with your dog.