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The new Tennis Australia CEO suggested earlier this week that Grand Slam tennis matches may be shortened in the future. But on Thursday, the tournament’s social media accounts appeared to walk back their own head’s comments.
The Australian Open’s official Instagram and X accounts posted a statement Thursday saying that it will not be abandoning the five-set format.
“While innovation is part of the AO’s DNA, five-set tennis is here to stay. We’ll reveal more on what’s coming to AO 2027 soon,” the post read.
On Monday, Andrew Abdo, the Tennis Australia CEO who took over for Craig Tiley last month, said at a conference that Grand Slams may consider adjusting match formats in an effort to attract younger audiences to the sport. Tiley is now leading the USTA, the organizer of the US Open.
“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 at SportNXT.
He admitted that many “purists” would object with the notion of adjusting match lengths, but said other sports have made similar adjustments.
The Australian Open did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Abdo, who previously spent more than a decade with the National Rugby League, is not alone in his desire to shorten matches.
Novak Djokovic, a 24-time Grand Slam champion, told a creator in late July that he wants to lower the scoring in each set. Though the 39-year-old also said he would like to keep the five-set format.
“We should change the format of the scoring,” Djokovic said. “Not play up to six games a set, play up to four, possibly no ad, best of five sets, keep the matches within the two-hour window. It’s best for everyone.”
The topic of changing tennis formats has gained additional attention over the last few weeks as US Open matches have consistently ended after midnight. The quarterfinal thriller in Arthur Ashe Stadium between Ben Shelton and Carlos Alcaraz started on Tuesday night and ended at 3:33 a.m. ET Wednesday, the latest finish for a match in US Open history.
Earlier in the tournament, Serena Williams and Sofia Kenin’s first-round singles match in Arthur Ashe started at 12:13 a.m., the latest start for a match in the tournament’s history.
Both records were hit due to lengthy matches that preceded them at Arthur Ashe. However, several current and former players appear to still be in favor of sticking to the current format and finding other solutions to the time change.
“We’ve seen so many epics in five-setters,” said Frances Tiafoe, after he played a near five-hour match Tuesday against Alex Michelsen. “Do I love five-setters? Absolutely not. There’s a lot of times where I’m up two sets to love, I would love to shake hands and go home. But it’s tennis, man.”
Andy Roddick, the most recent American to win a Grand Slam, said he understands the criticism of the lengthy format, but argued that the current format is what separates tennis from other sports.
“I kind of like the fact that we have a sport where you get into these longform matches and it’s the hardest thing on earth,” Roddick said Wednesday on his podcast, Served. “If you take that away, can we lay that claim anymore? I don’t know.”
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