Tennis Australia’s new CEO has opened the door to ditching five-set matches at Grand Slams and changing the sport’s scoring system.
Mere weeks after former National Rugby League CEO Andrew Abdo took over from Craig Tiley, who is now CEO at the United States Tennis Association, he is considering seismic changes to the Australian Open.
More than 1.3million people attended the 2026 edition of the event – a tournament record – but Abdo has ambitious plans to make tennis Australia’s No 1 sport.
In Australia, Aussie Rules and Rugby League are the country’s most popular sports but Abdo feels that order could change within the next five years or so.
Many have talked about scrapping five-set tennis as few people can afford to spend so much time on one match, for example. Now, Abdo is talking about ripping up the script in a bid to boost tennis’ popularity.
More Tennis News
Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for tennis coverage you can trust.
He told the Herald Sun, “Maybe in the future, slams at the different rounds or at different lengths of duration, you know, maybe we’re not playing best of five all the way through, maybe the point scoring system changes.
“Maybe there are different permutations to how we engage and entertain audiences without losing the fabric, and what really makes the sport special.
“I think those are the questions that we need to explore and discover, and I think there’s a place for evolving that. If you listen to the purists, they’ll say, ‘don’t touch that’.
“But actually… if you look at sports around the world, if you’re not thinking about that product in a way that’s contemporary, in a way that’s going to connect with young people, then I think you’re going to be left behind.”
This may be music to 24-time major winner Novak Djokovic‘s ears. In early August, the 39-year-old advocated for tennis matches to last no more than two hours and for the ‘advantage’ rule to be abolished.
He said, perhaps with a bit of tongue in cheek, “I think tennis needs a new scoring system. Sets should not be played up to six games. I believe that a set should be played up to four games, with the possible abolition of the ‘advantage’ rule at 40:40.
“Matches would be played until someone wins three such shortened sets. That way, matches would not last longer than two hours, which, in my opinion, is best for everyone.”
It finally seems that Father Time is catching up to Djokovic, as the veteran struggles to deal with an increasingly physical tour and his body creaking. Indeed, he wilted with the humidity and threw up during his first round US Open loss.
The Serbian is hoping to get to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics but at this rate, it is not certain he will get there. But if Abdo’s mooted reforms come in, he could stick around for a while longer.
Abdo added, “There’s a lot to be proud of, but we can’t sit still. We’re No. 3 in Australia at the moment in terms of participation and I think we can get to No. 1 over the next five years.
“We have to be restless, we have to be curious and we have to find new ways to connect to audiences.
“In a couple of months’ time the AO27 will be the best grand slam that we’ve put on… and the vision we have to have is to be not only the best slam in the world, we want this to be one of the most iconic events in the world.”
READ NEXT: Alexander Zverev makes special US Open ‘request’ amid Roger Federer and Pete Sampras admission
