Why, in the professional tennis circuits, do the women play the best two sets out of three, while the men play the best three out of five?
It’s an endurance thing. Sure, women run the marathon and women are also tri-athletes, so maybe the time has come to make them play best of 5, but I LIKE best of 3. Best of 5 can get dull, in my opinion.
There have been some trials of 3 out of 5 matches for women in finals, but they weren’t popular with the players, so they never caught on.
Tennis does have a tendency to hold on to a lot of traditions that may be a bit out of date, like the let on serves that just graze the net and still land in the service court.
It took the Davis Cup much longer than other tennis competitions to adopt tiebreakers.
I think unless Hingis, Davenport, and the Williams sisters all announce that they want to play best of five, it isn’t going to change.
During ATP tour events men only play 3 sets except during the finals. For Grand Slam events the men play 5 sets, I think this is because Grand Slams take place over 2 weeks so there is more time for longer matches. I think the women only play 3 sets in Grand Slams because that is the tradition and since they make the same money for less tennis I don’t think it is likely they will complain.
Seriously, though, it would change the game I think and the smaller (fitter) players like Anna would do better because of the endurance aspect. The Williams sisters would probably win everything because they seem to be the best athletes.
Davenport would never win a 5 set match 'cause she wouldn’t be able to hit hard and run around for 3 hours without collapsing.
Do they really make the same money for less tennis? I’d think they ought to get less. Is this controversial that the men don’t get paid more for more time on the courts, and more risk of injury?
I don’t believe the Grand Slam tournaments have equal purses for men and women. I don’t believe it’s the length of the tournaments that is the issue, instead it’s the quality of the field (there are supposed to be more equally matched male players) and supposedly more interest in male tennis.
I believe the U.S. Open has equal purses of men and women, but I’m pretty sure that Wimbledon does not.