American star and world No. 5 Coco Gauff, along with world No. 2 Iga Świątek, recently laid out their views on the possibility of women competing in best-of-five-set matches. While both shared a broadly similar stance, agreeing that the longer format would be demanding for both men and women, Świątek added that she might gain an edge if women adopted it.
Iga Świątek and Coco Gauff Make Their Stance Crystal Clear on Playing Best-of-5 Sets Matches
Women’s tennis could be on the brink of a significant format shift at the Australian Open, with five-set matches potentially being introduced as early as the 2027 edition. Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley has floated the proposal, suggesting that women contest best-of-five matches from the quarterfinals onward in Melbourne.
Gauff and Świątek, meanwhile, have yet to begin their respective campaigns at the WTA 1000 event in Qatar and were quizzed on the potential format change during their pre-tournament press conferences. Notably, while men contest best-of-five matches at Grand Slams, women’s matches continue to be played in the traditional best-of-three format.
“I mean, could I play best-of-five sets? Probably, yes. Do I want to? I mean, it’s a lot of playing. I don’t know. I feel like, from a spectator’s standpoint, it would be just too much for the men and women to play best-of-five. I mean, the matches are already going long; imagine if the women were also doing best-of-five sets. I guess my stance is whatever,” Gauff said, per The Tennis Gazette.
The American also stressed that any shift must be applied across the entire tournament rather than introduced midway, adding that she prefers the consistency and balance of the current best-of-three format.
“Like I feel like if you’re going to best-of-five, like the whole tournament should be best-of-five. It shouldn’t be like, ‘Oh, we’re going to start best-of-five in the quarters.’ I think for me that feels, I don’t want to say stupid, because that’s a big word. But I feel like the rules of the tournament should be consistent throughout the whole tournament. I don’t know. I like the way two-out-of-three is,” she said.
She added, “I think best-of-five wouldn’t be terrible, but I don’t know. I feel indifferent towards the question, honestly. “I like the way it is right now. Two out of three feels right. I can be home at a good time. I feel like best-of-five we’re going to be out there until 5:00 a.m. like every day.”
Gauff enters the event as the fourth seed, with Aryna Sabalenka, Jessica Pegula, and Madison Keys not competing. The American would face Elisabetta Cocciaretto in the second round. Meanwhile, Świątek arrives at the tournament as the top seed and also shared her perspective on the issue ahead of her campaign.
“I think with the world right now that is kind of, like, speeding up, I don’t really think it makes sense for us to play such long matches. Especially when I think it would be tough to keep the quality up throughout the whole match. “But if you ask specifically to my game, I consider myself one of the players that is like kind of tough in coping with endurance and longer matches,” she said.
Świątek suggested she might gain an edge in a longer format but admitted uncertainty over how her body would respond, having never played such matches. The 24-year-old also noted that introducing five-set contests would force major changes in season planning, preparation, and tournament scheduling.
“I think maybe I would have some advantage. Honestly, I’ve never played such a long match, so I have no idea how my body would react. I think also the whole season would change, because we would need to plan everything differently and prepare for these long, long matches. There would, for sure, be many, many more questions about the scheduling then,” she said.
Świątek opens her Qatar Open campaign against Janice Tjen, who made an eye-catching start by stunning Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia in a commanding straight-sets victory to book her place in the second round. Against this backdrop, the debate now turns to whether Grand Slams will eventually introduce best-of-five matches for women and how close the sport may be to such a shift.
