WTA locker room rejects the five-set format

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The director of the Australian Open made public his idea of bringing women's matches to five sets starting from the quarterfinals in 2027. But had he consulted this with the players? Listening to their opinions, it is clear that he had not.

It took the WTA 1000 in Doha to gather the best at the tournament's Media Day, the perfect moment to lay the issue on the table and for each to have their say. Several top 10 players have expressed their views on this possible change, all of them negative and unsupportive of the initiative. The colleagues at Tennis365 gathered some to show that the locker room could not be more against Craig Tiley's fantasy.

For instance, Cori Gauff, one of the most athletic players on the WTA circuit, a clear profile of a player who could benefit from this new format. What is the American's opinion? The truth is she is not entirely sure herself, although from her comments, she does not seem fully convinced.

"I'm not sure, to be honest. Could I play a best-of-five match? Probably yes. Do I want to play best-of-five matches? I don't know, it's a lot of tennis. If I put myself in the spectator's shoes, maybe it would be too much to have five-set matches for both men and women," said the 21-year-old days before being knocked out in Doha. So, if even Gauff is not clear about it, you can imagine the doubts multiplying when we put the microphone in front of her counterparts.

Amanda Anisimova, another trending player within the top 10, although things haven't gone well for her this week in Doha either.

The American directly addresses the structure that the players have been maintaining throughout their careers, in the habit of competing in three-set matches and thus training with the focus on maximizing performance in three sets, not more. "I think it would be a tremendous physical change for a woman's body [...] If you ask me, as of today, I would say I prefer to keep playing best-of-three sets, for sure," added the 24-year-old.

Iga Swiatek rejects the option of playing five sets

The final blow comes from Iga Swiatek, the top-ranked player in the tournament. "I believe that in a time when everything is accelerating on the circuit, it really doesn't make much sense for us to start playing such long matches, especially considering the difficulty of maintaining quality throughout the match. If you ask me, I consider myself one of the toughest players to face endurance and endure long matches, maybe I would have some advantage," the Polish player maturely assumes.

"Honestly, I have never played such a long match, so I have no idea how my body would react," the player herself wonders about how she would respond to such a demanding challenge. "I also think that the entire season would change because we would have to plan everything differently, prepare to be in good shape for these much longer matches. There would surely be many questions about scheduling, many more than we have now," concludes the six-time Grand Slam champion.

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, El vestuario WTA rechaza el formato a cinco sets