Goran Ivanisevic Suggests Five-Set Matches Are Too Long

Written by: Staff on 25th January 2013

Goran Ivanisevic Suggests Five-Set Matches Are Too Long |

The man who took five sets and two days – London rain intervened – to win his career-highlight Wimbledon title a dozen years ago says now that five sets are too many for today’s tennis.

Croatian Goran Ivanisevic, playing in the Legends event at the Australian Open, believes that tiebreakers are the key to keeping match times under control.

The Open final a year ago took almost six hours and ended well into the Monday following the Sunday night start. Part of the problem in the well-documented Open habit of kowtowing to television interests with late match time to suit morning Europe.

Ivanisevic thinks that the US Open’s use of the tiebreaker in fifth sets of men’s matches is a step forward. The New York major is the only one which has broken with tradition.

“It’s tougher,” the 41-year-old told local media. “Tougher because there are a lot of tournaments. Second, you can have every match (lasting) a couple of hours. I think they have to change the rules.

“Every Grand Slam should have tiebreakers in the fifth set, like US Open, because you can shorten the match for at least one hour, a big difference.

“Four hours or five hours is huge difference – so tie-breaker in the fifth set. I know it’s like roulette, but still it’s great for the spectators, it’s exciting and it’s fun.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: Australian Open, Goran Ivanisevic, Sports, Tennis News