Novak Djokovic Disagrees With Roger Federer's 5-Set Rule Proposal

Plamen1234

Plamen1234

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Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic does not agree with Roger Federer's suggestion that more events outside the Grand Slams should consist of five-set matches as the debate continues to heat up.

Both Djokovic and Federer are competing in the Cincinnati Masters and when the latter was asked what rule he would change in tennis following his win over Peter Gojowczyk on Tuesday, he suggested more best-of-five competition, particularly in the finals of ATP Tour events.

"I would add more best of five sets matches in finals," Federer said, as per the Express. "In Masters 1000 we have more opportunities to have five-set matches, especially at the World Finals. … On the ATP Tour we don’t have any five-set matches. I know it’s for player protection, but I feel it’s an opportunity wasted."

As of now, five-set matches only take part in the four Grand Slams, and are generally seen as a more accurate representation of a player's ability and endurance, which Federer seems to agree with.

But Djokovic feels otherwise and even believes Grand Slam events should be limited to just three sets. His reasoning, however, is based on the long term interest of the sport.

"I actually heard him [Federer] speak about it, he said best of five he would make it," Djokovic said after his win over Adrian Mannarino on Wednesday. "I am against that. I would have even Grand Slams best of three."

"This new generation of tennis fans and Millennials, they don’t have a great attention span and they want things to happen very quickly. So for the players as well and to attract more people and viewers of a younger audience we have to keep tennis matches dynamic and shorter."

The debate about five-set matches comes in the midst of the Wimbledon semifinals last month where Djokovic's win over Rafael Nadal and Kevin Anderson's win over John Isner lasted nearly a combined 12 hours.

And former No. 1 Andy Murray agreed with Djokovic from a spectator's standpoint, even if he personally enjoys playing five-set matches himself.

The Briton was a commentator for the Wimbledon quarterfinal match between Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro, which lasted four hours and 48 minutes as he reflected on the viewing experience.

"It was interesting watching it from a different perspective, and I picked things up like, 'Oh my god, this match is incredibly long'," Murray told the New York Times earlier this week. "As a player, I really like best-of-five. It's been good to me. I feel like it rewards the training and everything you put into that."

"But then, when I sat and watched the match in the commentary booth, it was an amazing match, it was a brilliant match, but it was really, really long to sit there as a spectator for the first time. That evening I had a meeting planned and I missed my dinner. People who are sitting there during the week watching that, I don't think you can plan to do that. A lot of people are going to be getting up and leaving the matches and not actually watching the whole thing. The people in the stadium loved it, but I don't think it - as well, what happened in the semifinals - is good for tennis."

https://www.ibtimes.com/novak-djokovic-disagrees-roger-federers-5-set-rule-proposal-2709021
 
"The debate about five-set matches comes in the midst of the Wimbledon semifinals last month where Djokovic's win over Rafael Nadal and Kevin Anderson's win over John Isner lasted nearly a combined 12 hours."
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The problem here was the 5th set with no tiebreak ! Not a BO5 issue.
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I’m with Federer on this one. One of my pet hates is trying to change things because of ‘millennials’. Wouldn’t the world be a lot better if we just taught young people not to spend their lives on attention-span reducing activities like social media, tinder, gaming etc. rather than try and change everything to suit their bad habit?
 
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I think you can keep it at 5 sets and speed the surfaces up. We never used to have this problem of 6 hour matches.

Most of the super long matches seem to have come in the last 10 years. I remember the Fed-Nadal 2008 Wimbledon semi going 4 hours and 48 minutes and feeling that it took an eternity. That's nothing compared to the length that matches have gone on since then.

Nadal vs Verdasco broke the then-record for longest match (if I'm correct),taking over 5 hours.

The Isner-Mahut and Isner-Anderson matches that went long.

Federer vs DelPotro which went 4 hours and 16 minutes or so, for a 3 set match in the 2012 Olympic semi.

Nadal vs Djokovic 5 hours and 53 minutes 2012 AO final.

Nadal vs Djokovic Wimbledon semi > 5 hours. As well as multiple Nadal and Novak matches. (Nadal vs Dimi, for example, went 5 hours, but barely gets mentioned.)
 
Plamen1234 said:
The Briton was a commentator for the Wimbledon quarterfinal match between Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro, which lasted four hours and 48 minutes as he reflected on the viewing experience.

"It was interesting watching it from a different perspective, and I picked things up like, 'Oh my god, this match is incredibly long'," Murray told the New York Times earlier this week. "As a player, I really like best-of-five. It's been good to me. I feel like it rewards the training and everything you put into that."

"But then, when I sat and watched the match in the commentary booth, it was an amazing match, it was a brilliant match, but it was really, really long to sit there as a spectator for the first time. That evening I had a meeting planned and I missed my dinner. People who are sitting there during the week watching that, I don't think you can plan to do that. A lot of people are going to be getting up and leaving the matches and not actually watching the whole thing. The people in the stadium loved it, but I don't think it - as well, what happened in the semifinals - is good for tennis."
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Fed was only talking about the FINAL guys, not each and every match.
Most of the objects here by Roddick and others have to do with earlier matches going to five.

If the final is five sets, you will obviously plan for it (as a spectator).

That said I am not sure how most players will handle it, considering they are playing matches daily with no rest. For example, Tsitsipas was finished by the final at Canada. Not sure how he could have handled a five setter.


The last B05 final I recall watching was at the WTF, Fed vs Ferrer and it was quite boring. 3,3 and 3 if i remember.
 
Djoker has to be djoking to suggest the slams should be BO3! Is he serious?! The Masters finals should be BO5 for sure.

Mr Feeny said:
I think you can keep it at 5 sets and speed the surfaces up. We never used to have this problem of 6 hour matches.
Click to expand...

Exactly. When courts were faster we never had this happen so much. Even in the superfast servebot 90's we never had a mens final 5th set go past 6-4.
 
Nadal_Django said:
How many slams would Djokovic have with best of 3 format. Hmm :confused:o_O
Click to expand...

Well straight off the bat, he would have been knocked out by Fed at the 2011 US open and Murray at the 2012 Australian Open, so take those two off him. Can’t find any matches where he lost after being 2 sets to love or to 1 up though, so he would actually be 2 majors worse off in total :) (could be missing something though)
 
Topspin Slice said:
Well straight off the bat, he would have been knocked out by Fed at the 2011 US open and Murray at the 2012 Australian Open, so take those two off him. Can’t find any matches where he lost after being 2 sets to love or to 1 up though, so he would actually be 2 majors worse off in total :) (could be missing something though)
Click to expand...
You can add Wimbledon 2014 and 2015 also. ;)
 
I hate the idea of shortening the format. Grand Slam tennis only comes on 8 weeks of the year, therefore, It should still be the ultimate test in Tennis. The BO5 masters 1000 final should be played in the final ONLY if they have 2 days off pre-final.
 
Can't agree with Novak there. Slams are and should be extra challenging than other events.
 
Mr Feeny said:
I think you can keep it at 5 sets and speed the surfaces up. We never used to have this problem of 6 hour matches.

Most of the super long matches seem to have come in the last 10 years. I remember the Fed-Nadal 2008 Wimbledon semi going 4 hours and 48 minutes and feeling that it took an eternity. That's nothing compared to the length that matches have gone on since then.

Nadal vs Verdasco broke the then-record for longest match (if I'm correct),taking over 5 hours.

The Isner-Mahut and Isner-Anderson matches that went long.

Federer vs DelPotro which went 4 hours and 16 minutes or so, for a 3 set match in the 2012 Olympic semi.

Nadal vs Djokovic 5 hours and 53 minutes 2012 AO final.

Nadal vs Djokovic Wimbledon semi > 5 hours. As well as multiple Nadal and Novak matches. (Nadal vs Dimi, for example, went 5 hours, but barely gets mentioned.)
Click to expand...
Completely agree with this.

This is a manufactured crises and the manufacturer's are racquet and string companies.

This is a failure of the stewards of the game. They did nothing to stop the tech march of racquets and strings. It's changed the very way the game is played.

Fun fact: during the 2000 AO there was 1 match the entire tournament that lasted over 4.5 hours. In the 2015 AO there were 11 - in the first round.

Instead of addressing and trying to repair the damage they've done those same stewards now want to change the rules and structure of the game. Fast4, 1 serve only, no ad, shot clock - all because they failed at their job.

The governing bodies of baseball, golf, swimming, cycling, and others all have limits on technology to preserve the nature of the game. Meanwhile the ITF chose to do absolutely nothing at all.
 
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I agree with both funnily enough which is why I think BO5 in GS and BO3 in masters/WTF is probably fair.

You train so hard, and sometimes luck can be against you in BO3 matches. But BO5, luck doesn’t play as bigger part as the match is long enough for things to even out.

But I can see where Djok and Murray are coming from, BO5 matches can get really long and it can be hard watching as a spectator in the stadium especially if it’s not two top guys playing. But GS need BO5.
 
K-H said:
You train so hard, and sometimes luck can be against you in BO3 matches. But BO5, luck doesn’t play as bigger part as the match is long enough for things to even out.
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this I agree with. many, many times I've seen players who were just playing out-of-their-mind, lucky tennis for an hour or so, and that ends up getting them within a couple of games of, if not winning the match. I'm not the biggest fan of that. I'm someone who advocates for BO5's only being used in Finals but in the bigger Slam draws I feel you likely increase the chances of early round upsets by shortening the matches. Personally, I don't like that possibility but whomever markets tennis might think the increased chaos will put more eyes on the sport. so lengthening the matches could separate the wheat from the chaff better, but also shortens the lifespan of the players. I'd lean toward doing something about the latter.
 
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Topspin Slice said:
Well straight off the bat, he would have been knocked out by Fed at the 2011 US open and Murray at the 2012 Australian Open, so take those two off him. Can’t find any matches where he lost after being 2 sets to love or to 1 up though, so he would actually be 2 majors worse off in total :) (could be missing something though)
Click to expand...
You can take 2014 Wimb and 2015 Wimb from him too :)
 
If slams go BO3 I quit watching tennis. Simple as that.

That said, so many Masters are back to back these days so BO5 finals would be harsh. One of the reasons for the switch was the epic Rome 2006 Final which caused both Federer and Nadal to pull out of Hamburg the next week. Masters finals will never go back to BO5 for that reason. The top guys won't show up at the next tournament in a back to back so it will hit certain tournaments bottom lines hard. Even now, a tournament like Paris struggles because of its position on the calendar. So the schedule would need a major makeover.

And if Zverev wins a few Masters, big deal.

I think a BO5 WTF Final is a great idea because they get the offseason to recover, but Masters are fine now as they are, IMO. BO3 Finals allow me to do things after the match is over. BO5 Finals are generally far too long.

The next best solution is what @Mr Feeny said above. You could've kept them BO5 and sped up a few surfaces because we never used to have this problem 15-20 years ago.
 
Plamen1234 said:
"This new generation of tennis fans and Millennials, they don’t have a great attention span and they want things to happen very quickly. So for the players as well and to attract more people and viewers of a younger audience we have to keep tennis matches dynamic and shorter."
Click to expand...

HAHAHAHAH......Millenials

@%$! Millenials and their no attention span lazy butts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
"This new generation of tennis fans and Millennials, they don’t have a great attention span and they want things to happen very quickly. So for the players as well and to attract more people and viewers of a younger audience we have to keep tennis matches dynamic and shorter."
Click to expand...
One wonders whether Djokovic realizes that he's a Millennial.
 
maratha_warrior said:
As a Djokovic fan , I Totally agree with Federer on this.
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Due to court speeds, game style and equipment matches today are much longer than they were 20 or more years ago. I think best of 3 would be good in slams till the semi's, then go best of 5 in finals and perhaps the semi's as well. Federer is lucky that he developed a game that is not as taxing on the body as Nadal and Novak's games. Perhaps youngsters should be taught the game the way Roger plays it?
 
thrust said:
Due to court speeds, game style and equipment matches today are much longer than they were 20 or more years ago. I think best of 3 would be good in slams till the semi's, then go best of 5 in finals and perhaps the semi's as well. Federer is lucky that he developed a game that is not as taxing on the body as Nadal and Novak's games. Perhaps youngsters should be taught the game the way Roger plays it?
Click to expand...
It's the first time I'm hearing you're lucky to have developed your game in a certain way.
 
cknobman said:
HAHAHAHAH......Millenials

@%$! Millenials and their no attention span lazy butts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...
Djokovic is a Millennial himself, but probably an atypical one. His practice sessions last 4 hours, which is more time away from their phones than 95% of Millenials have ever spent.

I disagree with Djoker that an entire sport should be drastically altered because people under 35 have no attention span. That’s their freakin’ problem. Get off the phone or video games.
 
Interesting that many here seem to feel Djokovic has better chances in BO5, while in 2011-2016 he was generally considered to be mostly unbeatable in the BO3 format....

I think he simply wants what works well for himself. Makes sense too, honestly.

Anyway, I agree with Federer on this, I liked the BO5 in MS finals a lot, and especially in the WTF final :)

In fact, they should do BO5 final again in the women's WTF as well!
 
BeatlesFan said:
Djokovic is a Millennial himself, but probably an atypical one. His practice sessions last 4 hours, which is more time away from their phones than 95% of Millenials have ever spent.

I disagree with Djoker that an entire sport should be drastically altered because people under 35 have no attention span. That’s their freakin’ problem. Get off the phone or video games.
Click to expand...

What's makes you think he's away from his phone during a practice session? I mean, they take regular breaks during such sessions as well, and any player I have seen in practice does seem to check their phones during those breaks...

Agree with the rest thugh, I hate everybody being so absorbed in their phones in particular, and I find myself sometimes hating myself after catching myself spending too much time on it.
 
I think Novak is using reverse psychology. Once he openly suggests to change majors into BO3, they are guaranteed to stay BO5.
 
Maybe Djokovic as a millenial himself is well aware of the problem. He doesn't have the attention span for a 5 setter either.

Admittedly I'm neither a boomer or a millenial and I can barely take time to watch a full 5 set tennis match. Most of the times I throw it on in the back ground and do other things. Unless its a final with a couple big names.
 
Mr Feeny said:
I think you can keep it at 5 sets and speed the surfaces up. We never used to have this problem of 6 hour matches.

Most of the super long matches seem to have come in the last 10 years. I remember the Fed-Nadal 2008 Wimbledon semi going 4 hours and 48 minutes and feeling that it took an eternity. That's nothing compared to the length that matches have gone on since then.

Nadal vs Verdasco broke the then-record for longest match (if I'm correct),taking over 5 hours.

The Isner-Mahut and Isner-Anderson matches that went long.

Federer vs DelPotro which went 4 hours and 16 minutes or so, for a 3 set match in the 2012 Olympic semi.

Nadal vs Djokovic 5 hours and 53 minutes 2012 AO final.

Nadal vs Djokovic Wimbledon semi > 5 hours. As well as multiple Nadal and Novak matches. (Nadal vs Dimi, for example, went 5 hours, but barely gets mentioned.)
Click to expand...

But even that, how awesome is it to watch two guys going all out, especially in 4th and 5th sets? I mean I don't know about you, but watching Fed against Nadal in 2008 or the Anderson match a few weeks ago, Nadal and Djokovic from Wimbledon or the French in 2013 and the crazy 2012 Australian Open final were just amazing to watch. Granted, watching Isner and Anderson wasn't nearly as exciting, but then again that's more to do with playing styles of respective players and not so much the duration of the matches. I think catering to this "next generation" of players by reducing the physicality of matches is just chicken **** and way to coddle these kids. It would diminish the accomplishment of winning a major and allow players to become lackadaisical with their fitness and yet still win a major title. I don't agree with it, and I'm with Fed on this one. I think Masters 1000 finals should go back to Bo5. Remember that 2005 Miami final - Fed came back against Nadal down 0-2, or the Rome final from 2006? Those are the kind of awesome matches we are missing out on by reducing Bo5 to Bo3.

https://www.atpworldtour.com/en/scores/2006/416/MS001/match-stats

https://www.atpworldtour.com/en/scores/2005/403/MS001/match-stats
 
Just ditch the no TB rule in the fifth.

I do agree with what Djokovic is saying though. I mean come on, did ANY of you have the attention span to sit through Anderson Isner? The answer is no, and the only reason you did was because Nadal Djokovic should’ve been going on afterwards.
 
Fabresque said:
Just ditch the no TB rule in the fifth.

I do agree with what Djokovic is saying though. I mean come on, did ANY of you have the attention span to sit through Anderson Isner? The answer is no, and the only reason you did was because Nadal Djokovic should’ve been going on afterwards.
Click to expand...

Again though, that has less to do with the actual duration of the match and more to do with the playing style. Like watching paint dry vs watching The Avengers. Who would sit down for 3 hours to do the former? Most guys would sit down for 3 hours to do the latter.
 
I agree with Novak.. No BO5.. It it is too long and I've been a fan since the 90s. If a 3rd set is necessary make it first to 10 by two games. At 10-all, make it a TB, problem solved. Fans get their long match and suspense.
 
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