Amélie Mauresmo offers a major proposal for women's tennis: Best-of-five-set Grand Slam finals.
The former world No. 1 told Eurosport's Enis Koylu she supports staging best-of-five-set women's Slam finals because it would propel the women's game to a new level, give fans greater value and support equal prize money at Grand Slams as women would play the same length of final as men.
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Currently, all women's finals are best-of-three-sets.
"I would have loved to have played a five-set Grand Slam final. I am absolutely in favor of women playing the best of five sets, in a Grand Slam final to begin with," Mauresmo told Eurosport. "I think they would make finals better in general, they're one-sided too often. It would take women's tennis to another physical and sporting level."
Six of the last 15 women's Grand Slam finals have gone the three-set distance, including Sofia Kenin's 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over Garbiñe Muguruza in the 2020 Australian Open final and Naomi Osaka's 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 triumph over Victoria Azarenka in the US Open final last September.
While Mauresmo's suggestion for longer Slam finals may seem a stretch, consider from 1984-1998 the WTA Finals featured a best-of-five-set final when the year-end event was staged at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Martina Hingis defeated Lindsay Davenport 7-5, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in the last best-of-five-set WTA title match before a packed crowd at the 1998 season-ending event.
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