Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina celebrates after beating Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka to win the Australian Open women's final in three sets. Photo / AFP
Female tennis players can look forward to playing the best-of-five-set format of the game, according to proposals put forward by Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley.
The most dynamic administrator in an otherwise traditional sport, Tiley’s latest attention-grabbing idea is for women to play extended matches from the quarter-final stage of the Australian Open.
Speaking about Saturday’s three-set final between Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina, Tiley told Telegraph Sport that: “It would have been great to see another two sets, [because] it was so good.
“We think it adds more intrigue. In women’s sport, eight or nine of the top-10 athletes in the world are tennis players. So let’s keep elevating that side of the game.”
Tiley expected “push-back” on this suggestion, because of tennis players’ innate conservatism. He also admitted that, in preliminary consultations with the women’s locker room, the response had been mixed.
Replies depended on each individual’s game-style and physical characteristics – and whether they expected the longer format to suit them.
“I don’t know if it’s going to be appealing [to the players],” said Tiley, “but for me, it’s logical. If I were a woman tennis player, I’d be saying ‘I’ll make myself fitter, because I’d like to showcase our sport for longer’.
“I know that everyone’s always going to put their own interests first, which is fine. But these are the types of conversations we have to have as a sport.”
While full equality would require women to play best-of-five-set tennis from the beginning of the tournament, Tiley says this would not be physically practical within the existing time frame.
During the same interview with Telegraph Sport, Tiley also suggested allowing play to continue after serves touch the net cord – a system that has been used at junior level for almost a decade – and either shortening or abandoning the on-court warm-up.
His other most eye-catching proposal – which Tennis Australia insiders say will be ready for next year’s event – is to set up a high-tech “performance bench” at courtside which will capture players’ vital signs when they sit down at each changeover.
“We’ve got prototypes already built which are specifically designed to cool their bodies down and maximise performance,” said Tiley.
“The players will have screens set up so they can see their own heart rate and blood pressure. The idea is that it’s like a pit lane, designed to get them prepared for the next few points.
“We’ve got a futuristic chair, and while we are cooling you, you can stretch your legs out and relax a little bit and get the blood flowing.
“Players’ health is very important to us,” Tiley added.
“The other thing we want to do is to make this a medical and wellness headquarters, so that when players come to Australia in January they can get anything done from MRI scans to mammograms or cervical cancer screening.
“They will have access to advice, assessment and check-ups, with follow-ups if they want them throughout the year.”
The Australian Open already stands apart from the other slams in its desire to innovate, and Tiley is determined to continue the trend.
During a 25-minute conversation with Telegraph Sport, he discussed a variety of other unexpected ideas: building a translucent dome over the whole site, bringing in drones to deliver drinks to customers, and setting up a viewing sphere along the lines of the one that now dominates the skyline of Las Vegas – although probably not quite as large.
“The idea behind the Australian Open is not to make money, first and foremost, but to promote the sport of tennis,” he said.
“But other sports come along – pickleball or padel, for instance – and we’re in a fast-moving world. You can’t just do what you did before. For the last 100 years, that worked fine, but there’s plenty of evidence out there to tell you it’s not going to be a guarantee for the future.”
Although Tiley would already stand at No 1 in any putative tennis “power ratings” list, there is a limit to what any individual can achieve in a disunited sport which suffers from seven different governing bodies all pulling in different directions.
Yet Tiley’s influence seems likely to grow dramatically if, as expected, he is confirmed next week as the new chief executive of the United States Tennis Association.
This would be a smart move for both parties, especially as the US Open is a huge money-spinner which could be sharpened up on any number of levels.
At present, the experience for both players and fans lags a long way behind the standard set in Melbourne.
This widely anticipated move would also improve the position of the Professional Tennis Players’ Association (PTPA), which has brought an expensive anti-trust lawsuit against the two tours and the four majors.
Tennis Australia is the only one of these organisations which has already come to a legal settlement with the PTPA, much to the dismay of both the All England Club and the French Tennis Federation. But Tiley sees potential benefits in the case.
“Sometimes, like what’s happening in golf, forcing functions help get outcomes,” he said.
“Tennis has thrived and done well with its different governing bodies, but we are still No 3 among global sports in exposure and viewership, while only No 11 commercially. So there’s a big gap there.
“The lawsuit creates some challenges [in terms of the frosty relations now prevailing between the four slams] but I think it’s a matter of time.
“I think cooler heads will prevail and they [the other bodies] will think smarter about it.
“What’s most important is that we figure out a way in the near future of working together, because we are not there yet. Unfortunately, we don’t have a co-ordinated effort across the sport.
“If you want to think about going to ... five sets for the women, it will be harder work getting it done than it will be actually playing it.”