Australian Open Is Floating Drastic Change To Length Of Tennis Matches

As much as fans enjoyed the five-set thriller that Ben Shelton and Carlos Alcaraz delivered in the US Open quarterfinals last night, those types of matches might become few and far between at the Australian Open in years to come.

In a recent press conference, Tennis Australia CEO Andrew Abdo suggested that the Grand Slam might shorten matches in the future as they try to appeal to younger audiences. Different rounds might have different lengths and some might be a best-of-three rather than the traditional best-of-five or simply have a different scoring system.

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"Maybe in the future, Slams at different rounds or at different lengths of duration. Maybe we're not playing best-of-five all the way through. Maybe the point-scoring system changes," Abdo said, via Front Office Sports.

Fighting against the purists

Abdo recognized that such a change might offend the "purists" in tennis, but defended his suggestion by pointing out that sports leagues all over the world have made major changes in recent years. He feels that change might be necessary if only to avoid being "left behind."

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"If you're not thinking about that product in a way that's contemporary, in a way that's going to connect with young people, then I think you're going to be left behind," Abdo said.

This isn't the first time that there have been suggestions on how to shorten matches or prevent matches from going into the extreme late night hours. Just last Sunday, Venus Williams suggested that some changes be made after her own match against Sofia Kenin started after midnight and didn't end until after 2 a.m.

"I just don't know any other sport where you have to start that late," Williams said after the match. "I definitely think there's room for improvement there."

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The great Novak Djokovic suggested back in July that having sets go to four points rather than six and perhaps removing the advantage rule might be a good fix.

"We should change the format of the scoring," he said in July. "Not play up to six games a set, play up to four, possibly no ad."

But unlike Abdo, Djokovic is not at all interested in seeing the best-of-five format depart.

One thing that does seem clear is that change is coming. There's too much money at stake for Grand Slam tournaments to have matches starting late and ending well after most of America is asleep.

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