Maria Sharapova Hopes Men To Play Three Setters At Majors

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 7th March 2014

Maria Sharapova Hopes Men To Play Three Setters At Majors

epa04111705 Maria Sharapova of Russia responds to questions during the WTA Media All-Access Hour at the BNP Paribas Open tennis in Indian Wells, California, USA, 05 March 2014. EPA/JOHN G. MABANGLO |

Many are the calls for women to play the best of five sets matches in Grand Slam events to justify equal prize money with their male counterparts. Now Maria Sharapova has insisted that a far better plan would be to play men’s matches at the four majors over a shorter distance of best of three sets.

Purists would most certainly argue, using matches like Rafael Nadal’s classic Wimbledon final win over Roger Federer in 2008 at the prime example with other five sets epics like the Djokovic/Nadal tussle in the Australian Open final two years ago or even Stanislas Wawrinka’s 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 9-7 win over Djokovic in this year’s semi-final in Melbourne, as evidence.

Sharapova argued to the contrary and insisted it would not only make the men’s game more appealing, but could lengthen careers. “It would be more exciting from the beginning of the match because you know that first set is extremely important,” said the four-time Grand Slam winner.

“When you are watching a three-out-of-five-set match, the first set sometimes doesn’t mean too much.”

Sharapova continued: “Even a three sets match can last longer than three hours. Sometimes of course they are one-sided but there are a lot of matches that go the long haul. Five sets can be extremely tough on the body and men players have expressed a lot of concern in terms of recovery after a five hours match.”

However the contrary viewpoint predominates in the men’s game and Wimbledon champion Andy Murray disagrees vehemently with Sharapova’s suggestions.

“You spend more time in the gym putting your body through its paces to get ready for the Grand Slams, but they are the biggest events and should be the toughest test of a player physically and mentally,” said Murray.

“I like that it’s best of five sets. because I don’t think you get fluke results.”

Topics: 10sballs, Andy Murray, Australian Open, Grand Slam, Maria Sharapova, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Sports, Stanislas Wawrinka, Tennis, Tennis News, Wimbledon

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10sBalls_com says:

March 7, 2014 at 8:27 am

Maria Sharapova Hopes Men To Play Three Setters At Majors- http://t.co/JJAcX0wSB3 @MariaSharapova #WTA #ATP #tennis #news