Aryna Sabalenka voiced her strong opposition to the proposal of extending women’s knockout matches at Grand Slam events to best-of-five sets. While matches on the WTA Tour are played as best-of-three sets, the Major tournaments currently feature best-of-five set formats for men’s matches.
Sabalenka is currently competing at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships. She is the top seed at the tournament and began her campaign with a victory against qualifier Carson Branstine, winning in straight sets, 6-1, 7-5.
Aryna Sabalenka Speaks Out on Best-of-Five Sets for Women’s Grand Slams
During the post-match press conference following her win over Branstine, Sabalenka was asked whether she would support changing women’s knockout matches at Grand Slams to best-of-five sets.
In response, the World No. 1 voiced her concerns, saying she’s not ready to play such long matches and worries it could increase the risk of injury.
“I think probably physically I’m one of the strongest ones. Maybe it would benefit me. But I’m not ready to play five sets. I think it’s too much on the woman body. We are not ready for this amount of tennis. I think it would increase the amount of injuries. So this isn’t something I would consider. I’ll leave this for the guys to handle,” Sabalenka said.
Aryna Sabalenka says she doesn’t support the idea of best of 5 sets for women in Slams from the QF to the final, ‘I’m not ready to play 5 sets. I think it’s too much on the woman body… I think it would increase the amount of injuries’
“We just had an epic French Open men’s… pic.twitter.com/yfReC8uneA
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) June 30, 2025
Sabalenka also spoke about the 2025 French Open final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, which lasted over five hours. While she acknowledged that watching such a high-quality contest is “fun,” she would prefer not to be involved in such long matches.
“I was happy to see that long, high quality match. For someone watching it’s amazing to see like five hours of great tennis. It’s so fun to watch. But I’m not really jealous to stay there for five hours. As a player…I don’t know how many days they needed to recover after that crazy match. But it was an unbelievable match,” she added.
Who Will Aryna Sabalenka Face in Wimbledon Second Round?
Following her win over Branstine in the first round of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships, Sabalenka is set to face Marie Bouzková in the second round.
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Bouzková kicked off her grass-court season at the 2025 Eastbourne Open, where she fell to Anna Blinkova 4-6, 6-2, 3-6 in singles. However, she found success in doubles, partnering with Anna Danilina to claim the title by defeating Hsieh Su-wei and Maya Jouan in the final, 6-4, 7-5.
At Wimbledon, Bouzková secured a straight-sets win over Lulu Sun in the first round, 6-4, 6-4, setting up a second-round clash with Sabalenka.
Sabalenka and Bouzková have faced off three times on the WTA Tour, with the World No. 1 winning two of those matches. Their most recent meeting came in the quarterfinals of the 2025 Brisbane International, where Sabalenka triumphed 6-3, 6-4.
The winner of their Wimbledon second-round match will advance to face either Emma Raducanu or former Wimbledon champion Markéta Vondroušová in the third round.
