New Australian Open chief Andrew Abdo has opened up a can of worms by suggesting the Melbourne Grand Slam could scrap best-of-five sets in the future.
“Maybe in the future, Slams at the different rounds or at different lengths of duration, you know, maybe we’re not playing best of 5 all the way through, maybe the point scoring system changes,” said Abdo, which has been heavily criticised by fans and pundits.
It was followed by two sensation Grand Slam quarter finals between Carlos Alcaraz and Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe and Alex Michelsen and the Australian Open themselves have backtracked on their CEOs statement.
“While innovation is part of the Australian Open’s DNA, five-set tennis is here to say,” said the Grand Slam sheepishly in a social media message.
However, something does have to be done about matches finishing so late, with several matches at this year’s US Open ending in the early hours of the morning.
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Speaking on The Tennis Channel, Jim Courier said he was against the idea of scrapping best-of-five set matches at Grand Slams, but he would change another aspect of the scoring system in order to quicken up the game.
“It’s sort of linked to the history of the sport, right, how we compare generations of players,” said the American. “How do they do in this type of format? But it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be forever. I don’t know if it’s gonna happen in Australia.
“I find it interesting that as Craig Tiley was getting ready to leave the Australian Open, one of his parting shots, he said he thinks that there’s such an appetite for the sport that the women should play best of five from the quarterfinals on.
“I mean, I think eventually we are going to have to evolve, and I think the first little move forward will probably and should be, let’s go to no ad scoring, which will shrink the length of matches somewhat.
“And you got people who are permanent sports voices like Bill Simmons weighing in on how late the matches are going. This is a very topical thing right now.”
It’s worth noting that best-of-five set matches only take place four times a year at the four majors: the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the US Open.
Every other tournament on the calendar, including the nine Masters events, are all played under a best-of-three set format. It’s more the scheduling of matches rather than the length of matches that is the real problem.
