After a one-sided French Open final when Justine Henin demolished Ana Ivanovic, and after Venus Williams earned Wimbledon crown without using too much power to defeat Marion Bartoli, I vote for the introduction of best-of-five-set Grand Slam finals.
However, it seems that it won’t happen any time soon. Chairman and chief executive of the WTA Tour Larry Scott said: “My own view is that it’s probably counter to the direction we’ve been heading in from player-health and well-being standpoints.” What he refers to is that it collides with the idea to give the players a longer off-season and reduce tournament commitments because of numerous injuries and hence too many withdrawals. (via SeattlePI)
But think again, can five-set finals really affect player health? They would only make the final more thrilling, and give the player who’s down more chance to come back and a more solid and hardly earned victory for the one who wins. In addition, the spectators would have the pleasure of watching that prestigious match a bit longer.
Still, I think that playing all the matches in that way would probably be too much, especially considering the circumstances at this year’s Wimbledon — if women had played as much as men, the tournament would have lasted for five weeks, and not to mention that until the final there would have been no grass on the court.
