Monday, July 12, 2010
Should Women Play Five Sets?
Last week, in his review of Wimbledon, Mert Ertunga proposed that the women's semifinals and final at Slams should be best-of-five sets. As you can see from the comments, I was a little apprehensive to come round to the author's way of thinking.
So, it got me thinking. Should the women play best-of-five sets?
The usual argument when advocating a switch to five sets is solely based on money. The phrase "equal play, equal pay" is often thrown into any debate about the subject. On the one hand, I would be inclined to agree with such a sentiment; however, the "equal play" part of the phrase refers only to time on the court. It neglects the hours put in off the court, the place where the vast bulk of a tennis player's work takes place.
Thankfully, and to Mert's credit, he didn't mention money in his article when suggesting the idea. He merely stated that a longer match would offer better value for money for spectators, which in some ways is true, but perhaps value for money shouldn't be measured against quantity.
Quality should really be the barometer by which we judge matches. The men's final was between Tomas Berdych and Rafael Nadal lasted over an hour longer than the women's final, yet they were both tame affairs, though I will concede the quality of the men's final did just about beat that of the women's.
My concerns stem from the fitness of the women. I have doubts as to whether the vast majority of women could last five sets. If they can't, then the quality of tennis in a fourth or fifth set could drop considerably. In which case, I'm not sure that's worth doing, especially from a spectator's point of view.
I imagine that the top female players, like Serena and Venus Williams, could probably last for five sets, but with the women's game wide-open at the moment, anybody could make the semifinals — something demonstrated very clearly at Wimbledon. There were three surprise semifinalists and I doubt all of them are fit enough to play five sets of tennis.
All of that has been said from a spectator's point of view, but from a competition point of view, then I have very few problems with a switch in a Slam's latter stages. The four Slams are the pinnacle of the sport and the fact that the format on the women's side in no way differs from that of other tournaments can detract from the prestige of the Slams.
Making the women play five sets in the semifinals and final would go some way to ensuring the very best wins. It will require greater fitness and much greater mental strength. The cream will almost certainly always rise to the top and essentially, as fans that love the game, that's what we want.
My comments on Mert's article were a little abrupt and perhaps I hadn't thought it through then, but I'm slowly coming round to the idea. I still harbor some doubts and as Mert says, it would be nice to see someone in the game seriously put the idea forth. Frankly, I get the feeling I can rest easy with my doubts for the foreseeable future, knowing the game will go on unchanged.