Steven-time Wimbledon champion Billie Jean King believes both men and women should be subjected to the same scoring system in grand slam matches.
Writing for The Times, King has said that such a move would make the sport more appealing and easier for fans to follow. Under current rules, women play best-of-three set matches in the four majors. Meanwhile, men play in a best-of-five. At Wimbledon, there are no tie-breaks in the deciding set. Resulting in a marathon semi-final clash between Kevin Anderson and John Isner that lasted six hours and 36 minutes. Anderson prevailed 26-24 in the final set.
“One thing I would really like to see change is that I think we should have the same scoring system for men and women.” King writes.
“I think the men and the women should play best-of-three sets all year long. That way the fans — who are the most important part of this — will find it easy. What if you’re trying to attract new people to the sport? We make it difficult with different formats for men and women.”
Presenting her case for the change, the 74-year-old said that such a move would reduce the amount of injuries experienced on the men’s tour. Last year Novak Djokovic missed six months of the tour due to an elbow injury and underwent a medical procedure earlier this year. Making his run to the Wimbledon title even more impressive. Meanwhile, Andy Murray is still in the early stages of his comeback to the tour following hip surgery.
“The men wouldn’t wear out as fast. Best-of-five is way too much for them.” King argues. “Look at Friday night with Kevin Anderson and John Isner. Or even if they did three sets in the first week of a grand-slam, five sets in the second week — men and women should do the same.”
Angelique Kerber spent a total of nine hours and 53 minutes on on the court on route to winning the women’s title at Wimbledon. Meanwhile, Djokovic required almost double at 17 hours and 53 minutes.
Among grand slam officials there has been no indication that they will be willing to reduce the numbers of sets in men’s matches. Although the All England Club is facing fresh pressure to implement a final set tie-break. Amongst players, few have talked about this idea. Although some believe the problem for so many injuries is due to the calendar.
“Give the players that really stand out mandatory events, give them a chance to play everything within a seven-month period so they can really focus on themselves health-wise, but also on improving, because you need that time,” Milos Raonic said last October at the Japan Open.
“We’re the only sport, outside of golf maybe, that plays as spread out as we do without any time for rest.”
The ATP World Tour takes place between January-November.
