Coco Gauff has suggested women’s tennis would experience a major problem if they introduced five-set matches at Grand Slams.
Speaking earlier this year, former Australian Open chief Craig Tiley suggested five-set matches for women at Grand Slam level.
The proposed change would only take place from the quarterfinals onwards, which is a concept that Gauff has now discussed.
She was speaking ahead of her opening match at Indian Wells in California, where the WTA superstar is the fourth seed.
Do you think women should play best-of-five set matches?
Coco Gauff says Grand Slams wouldn’t finish in time with five sets for women
Gauff said of the potential change: “Yeah, I mean, it probably would favor me, because I’m physically up there with the best, but I mean, I probably wouldn’t want to see that happen, and if it were to happen, I would prefer it to be the whole tournament, not just the quarters.
“I think changing the format in the middle of the tournament defeats the purpose of the playing field.
“Yeah, I think it would be a lot on players and also, like, fans and TV. I mean, imagine, like, sometimes five sets lasts all the way to the 7:00 p.m. session.
“If all of us were going five sets, I don’t even think we would be able to finish within the two weeks, to be honest.”
If even a handful of best-of-five set matches went the distance, it certainly would be a struggle to finish the tournaments on time.
And that simply doesn’t work in anyone’s favor, particularly not for the players who are already up against a very busy schedule.
Where will Coco Gauff be ranked at the end of 2026?
Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka among players who could benefit from five sets
It was great insight from Gauff, who was as honest as ever in her response and how she wants the game to be played.
It is also an admirable attitude from the 21-year-old, who decided to look at the whole picture rather than her own personal interests.
Her physicality would likely mean success in best-of-five sets, but of course that wouldn’t be the scenario for every player.
A handful of her rivals are, however, in the same bracket when it comes to physicality, namely the likes of Elina Svitolina and Maria Sakkari.
World number one Aryna Sabalenka would also very likely benefit from playing best-of-five sets, while the same could have been said for Serena Williams in her prime.
The opening matches for the Indian Wells top four seeds
Sabalenka joins Gauff in returning to the WTA Tour this week, with the Indian Wells main draw now complete after qualifying reached its conclusion.
Sabalenka and Gauff have tough Indian Wells draws, although they have each received byes into round two of the WTA 1000 tournament.
There, the Belarusian will play the winner of Alycia Parks and Himeno Sakatsume, while the American will take on the winner of Bianca Andreescu versus Kamilla Rakhimova.
Second seed Swiatek meets either Francesca Jones or Kayla Day, while third seed Elena Rybakina will play either Hailey Baptiste or Emiliana Arango.
