GEORGIE PARKER: Men should play three sets at tennis majors like women after French Open female fixture snub

West Australian

4 hours ago

The French Open finals were both epic encounters, but there's something about the way the tournament is run that leaves a bitter taste.
Coco Gauff won in three sets against world number one Aryna Sabalenka to claim her first French Open title, and Carlos Alcaraz triumphed in an absolute thriller — lifting the trophy after a five-and-a-half-hour marathon against Jannik Sinner overnight.
I love a lot of things about tennis — it's one of my favourite sports to watch. One thing I really appreciate, which is rare in other sports, is the personalities of the players that shine through in their press conferences.
They play and speak for themselves — not through a team's PR or brand — so they often say exactly what's on their mind.
During the French Open, two things stood out to me from the press conferences.
Australia's top male hope, Alex de Minaur, who has been battling injuries on and off, suffered a shock second-round exit.
He complained, 'there's just too much tennis,' saying the season is too long and that 'the solution is you shorten it … because careers are going to get shorter and shorter — they're just going to burn out mentally.'
In the women's draw, Aryna Sabalenka, Jessica Pegula, and Ons Jabeur all made comments about the visibility of women's tennis at the tournament, with no women's matches played in the prime-time evening slot — reportedly because they only play three sets, not five.
That's not really a sound argument, as the Australian and US Opens alternate night matches between the sexes.
Pegula said it made her feel like 'hitting her head against the wall.'
Sabalenka played Olympic champion and world number eight Zheng Qinwen at 11 a.m.—a quarterfinal match that should have been a lock for prime-time action.
In some ways, tennis is far ahead of many sports, with equal pay at Grand Slams. But in other ways, it throws women under the bus, and there's still deeply rooted sexism in the sport.
In 2020, for example, the women's Italian Open champion received just €10 less than the men's champion — an amount so small it could only be interpreted as a deliberate statement that women shouldn't be equal.
They won't allow women to play five sets (even though the WTA has repeatedly expressed interest) due to 'logistical challenges' with broadcasting and scheduling.
Yet, because women aren't allowed to play five sets, they're denied prime-time slots—and the shorter matches fuel the 'you're not doing equal work for equal pay' criticism that women endure online every major tournament. It's infuriating.
So, from these press conferences, I'm hearing two problems: the men are playing too much tennis (though de Minaur was more focused on the length of the season than match format), and the women want to be seen as equal.
So here's a left-field solution: bring the men back to three sets at majors so everyone is on the same page?
Grand Slams would be easier for men to handle workload-wise, as best-of-five is extremely taxing, and there would be no excuse for tournament directors not to give women prime-time slots.
Now, if I'm being honest, I don't really want this. I love the five-set thrillers — staying up watching Lleyton Hewitt until 4:30 a.m. against Marcos Baghdatis in the 2008 Australian Open is one of my favourite sporting memories.
But what I do want is a solution for the women. It's not fair to hold something over them that directly impacts their visibility and growth, while not only denying them the opportunity to change it but actively blocking any change that could help.
Jabeur said it perfectly: 'Honouring one side of the sport shouldn't mean ignoring the other.'
Something has to give — because it's 2025, and these women deserve better.