Greg Rusedski isn't a big fan of Craig Tiley's idea to have women play best-of-five-sets from the Australian Open quarterfinal onward, but believes it would be quite entertaining to use the five-set format in women's Grand Slam final matches.
Following an Australian Open final that featured high-level tennis throughout – in which Elena Rybakina defeated Aryna Sabalenka 6-4 4-6 6-4 – Happy Slam tournament director Tiley dropped a bombshell by revealing that he was thinking about introducing best-of-five-set matches for women as early as 2027.
When throwing out the idea, Tiley noted that the five-set format would only be used in the latter stages of the tournaments. However, the Australian Open tournament director also underlined that the organizers would first need to speak with top players and see what was their perspective on the matter.
Rusedski, who finished as runner-up at the 1997 US Open, prefers to keep the traditional format for women's Grand Slam matches – at least until the final.
Rusedski: Why don't we make women's Grand Slam finals best-of-five?
“I’m not so sure about this. I quite like the traditional format of two out of three. It’s a bit bold. You have to try new things sometimes. But I am traditional, and I think you have to keep it as two out of three sets," the 1997 US Open finalist said on his podcast.
“In the old days, when I was playing the Masters series, you would play two out of three sets until you got the final and then it would be three out of five sets. Imagine that at all the Majors. Instead of having it from the quarters onwards, why don’t we make the finals three out of five sets?
“Finals tickets are so popular for the men’s and women’s at the Majors, and I think why not make the final three out of five sets? That would be my solution. So if it happens, I want credit for that one!”
Since the Australian Open was already finished when Tiley made the revelation, reporters were unable to get an immediate reaction from players.
However, top WTA stars will almost certainly be asked about it during next week's WTA 1000 tournament in Doha.
