Maria Sharapova suggested last week that to make the first set at a grand slam tournament more relevant men should play three-set matches.
“When you are watching a three-out-of-five-set match, the first set sometimes doesn’t mean too much,” the women’s world No 7 player said. “Five-setters are extremely tough on the body.”
Women’s tennis legend Billie Jean King has also been a long-time advocate of three-set matches for men at grand slams and, last year, Victoria Azarenka expressed the same opinion.
A few of the men’s stars, such as Roger Federer and Andy Roddick, have said they were not averse to the idea and there were some merits to the arguments.
But best-of-three-sets matches cannot produce the kind of epics that we have seen through the ages. For starters, three sets only allows for one comeback.
Few of the most memorable matches on the men’s tour features three-set ties – if any.
One of the greatest comeback of all time was at Wimbledon way back in 1927 when Henri Cochet turned around a 2-6, 4-6, 1-5 deficit in a semi-final to down two-time defending champion Bill Tilden.
Then there are classics like Novak Djokovic’s win over Rafael Nadal in the 2012 Australian Open final, just one of the many memorable five-set encounters in the history of the sport.
Grand slam tournaments remaining best-of-five-sets for men would, as Andy Murray said, avoid “fluke results”.
arizvi@thenational.ae
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