Long matches have always been part of tennis, and for many fans they are one of the things that make Grand Slam tournaments special.
At the same time, there is now more debate about whether the sport needs to change because matches often last several hours and the modern audience does not always have the patience to follow them from start to finish.
Novak Djokovic recently brought this topic back into the spotlight with an idea that would change the way tennis matches are played. The 39-year-old Serbian believes sets could be played to four games instead of six, with the advantage rule at 40-40 possibly removed as well. In his view, this could help keep matches under two hours.
Not everyone sees the idea in the same way. Some fans and former players prefer the traditional format and do not want tennis to lose that part of its identity. Others feel that shorter matches could make things easier for viewers, particularly younger fans who may not want to spend four or five hours watching one match.
John McEnroe seems to understand Djokovic’s thinking. The American legend also believes tennis has to think about how people follow sport today and whether the current format is always the best fit.
McEnroe agrees with Djokovic on shorter matches
The former world No. 1 believes attention spans have changed and tennis needs to think about that when discussing its future.
People’s attention spans are shorter than ever,” McEnroe said.
He also found something interesting in Novak being the player who suggested such a change. The Serbian built a large part of his career on physical endurance and was famous for surviving matches that lasted four or five hours.
“But Novak has won so much precisely because he was able to last longer than others. He was fitter than anyone had ever been and won matches that lasted five hours or more. He was much harder to beat in best-of-five-set matches than in best-of-three-set matches,” McEnroe said.
The 67-year-old also has his own version of how Grand Slam matches could be shortened.
“For Grand Slams, I would recommend a match tie-break when the score is two sets all, rather than a full fifth set.”
Djokovic’s idea is not completely new to professional tennis. The Next Gen ATP Finals already use a format where sets are played to four games, a tie-break comes at 3-3 and games use no-ad scoring. The event has served for years as a place where the ATP tests different rules and ideas before deciding whether some of them could work elsewhere.
That format is much faster than traditional tennis, although changing Grand Slam matches would be a much more serious step. Best-of-five tennis has been connected with the men’s Grand Slam tournaments for generations, and many famous matches became memorable exactly because players had to survive physically and mentally for so long.
Djokovic knows how difficult long matches can become
The timing of Djokovic’s comments also makes the debate more interesting. The 24-time Grand Slam champion is now 39 and the physical side of tennis has naturally become more demanding for him.
At the recent US Open, the former world No. 1 lost in the first round to Mariano Navone after four hours and 36 minutes. Djokovic was dealing with physical problems during the match and eventually lost 7-6(5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.
It was his earliest exit from a Grand Slam tournament since the 2006 Australian Open. The Serbian has often shown during his career that he can survive exhausting matches, but age has made recovery and long battles a more serious test than before.
This does not mean his idea is only about helping older players. Novak has spoken about the need to make tennis easier to follow for fans, while McEnroe has focused on the same issue with modern attention spans.