[Closed] Why don’t women play best out 5 sets in tennis?

Because patriarchy...

You nailed it at the end.

Just make it best out of three for everyone no ifs no buts.

Tennis is a ****ing awful game

Tennis is a **** awful game

I take it you don't play, or don't have enough ability to play...

Perhaps the scoring of the womens game should be revised so they are playing similar amounts of time, or exerting similar levels of physicality.

i.e. can someone like Federer or Nadal suffer a 5 hour match better than a typical top female player, perhaps she could only suffer 4 hours of such physicality before attaining the same state. Adjust the scoring system for women to accomodate that.

Men usually play best of 3.

Yep - it's only grand slams they play 5 sets I think. Just make the women play the same and give them equal prize money.

Make them play 0, get them MTBs and do an actual interesting sport 😀

5 sets seems ****ing daft to me - I prefer a game of skill/power than one of attrition
AUS and US open you often hear of players becoming genuinely unwell due to combination of heat and duration of matches. Stoopid

and give them equal prize money.

All grand slam (5 set for men) tournaments have paid equal pay to women since 2007. US open has been doing do since the mid 70s.

But agreed, does seem strange that it is different.

Personally I'd be getting rid of the 2nd serve as might first rule change.

As we can now rule out genetics as a differentiator between men and women, all sports should be mixed gender. That would resolve the issue immediately.

Why don’t women play best out 5 sets in tennis?

Maybe they don’t like sweating or perhaps it eats into their “nail bar” time 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

They’ve got to get home and get the dinner on*

*For the avoidance this is an ironic, sarcastic joke.

This would make scheduling difficult I imagine. Either longer days or a longer tournament.

I have never been to a tennis tournament but have spoken to quite a few that have, both male and female. From that and the empty seats I notice on the TV at some of the women's matches in the later stages of Wimbledon it would appear that people would rather watch mens tennis than women's tennis.

I don't see why the mens and women's final cannot be on the same day to help the profile of women's tennis. I don't think longer matches is the answer.

Is it not a trade off for all the other bits of inequality that still goes on, can't do anything with tennis till you have fixed everything else 😉

As we can now rule out genetics as a differentiator between men and women, all sports should be mixed gender. That would resolve the issue immediately.

I see what you did there - well done *applaudes*

I take it you don’t play, or don’t have enough ability to play…

I can barely mountainbike ...

Any game that can just go on and on and on until one person is tobexhausted to return a shot and loses the final. Stupid game.

It's a phenomenal game, so tough, the pros make it look so easy, but in reality the mental side of it, getting to where the ball is going to be is quite something, before you even consider the physical side of it.

I played for a couple of years, but wish it started when young, it's probably the sport I enjoy playing more than any other, but couldn't make it work for me in terms of the local club, sadly.

Any game that can just go on and on and on until one person is tobexhausted to return a shot and loses the final. Stupid game.

Not quite. Only in Wimbledon can matches go on and on. In the other grand slams and tournaments they'll play a final set tie break.

Its really the wrong question. The reason why its 5 sets for men and 3 for women is purely from historical tradition, but in the modern times there is no appetite for anyone to increase the length of games, not from spectators, TV companies, tournament organisers or the players so not much chance of increasing the length of the women's game. So the question should be why do men still play 5 sets instead of 3.

5 sets seems **** daft to me – I prefer a game of skill/power than one of attrition

And you get both styles in Tennis. Some are big servers or base line players who try to simply over power their opponents into submission, others are less powerful but more skilful and endurance athletes who like to mix it up a bit. All adds to the game in my view. Different strategies and different players will try to control the game to play to their strengths. Nothin more boring than pure power sports...at the elite level they're all just as powerful as each other so it gets boring to watch sportspeople trading blows.

At Wimbledon, it’s like wearing white, strawberries and Henman Hill... traditional innit. Has anyone asked the women, sorry ladies if they want to play 5 sets?

I'd turn men's grand slam to 3 sets too

Historically women have some catching up to do so 3 sets for men and 5 for the ladies .

Put all games down to 1 set- sudden death. Get the whole sorry spectacle over and done with in a few days rather than 2 weeks.

1 set of sudden death would stop us looking at their amazing physiques for many hours.
The women ain't bad either
😜

sweepy

Member

Put all games down to 1 set- sudden death

Penalty shootouts!

to anyone who says (also about almost any sport) it's boring; my answer's pretty much the same. Go and see it live. Particularly if you can see high level players close up.

Until you have, and understand how big a tennis court actually is (seriously, set yourself to do 8 shuttle sprints across the width; rest 15s, do it again, repeat for 3-4 hours and that's without actually playing any shots)

And understand how fast the ball is coming at you, and the dip and spin and swerve.

You don't get a true picture of how good these players are until you've seen it live. Once you have; then you are qualified to say it's boring, and more likely, that watching it on tv is boring because tv flattens it all out.

Put all games down to 1 set- sudden death. Get the whole sorry spectacle over and done with in a few days rather than 2 weeks.

And do the same for cricket, all matches 20-20, cycling (get rid of Tours and have 3 day events where the max stage is 20 miles) and so on. Live is too short for all of these long winded sports.

then you are qualified to say it’s boring, and more likely, that watching it on tv is boring because tv flattens it all out.

If I find something boring then I am qualified to say it is boring. I love cycling but find watching it very boring (apart from some track events). Do I need to ride the Tour De France before I can say I find it boring?

I love cars and driving but I find F1 extremely boring. I would love to actually race around a track if I had the money or skill and that would not be boring for me at all, but watching it definitely is boring.

to anyone who says (also about almost any sport) it’s boring; my answer’s pretty much the same. Go and see it live. Particularly if you can see high level players close up.

Until you have, and understand how big a tennis court actually is (seriously, set yourself to do 8 shuttle sprints across the width; rest 15s, do it again, repeat for 3-4 hours and that’s without actually playing any shots)

And understand how fast the ball is coming at you, and the dip and spin and swerve.

You don’t get a true picture of how good these players are until you’ve seen it live. Once you have; then you are qualified to say it’s boring,

This, I went to centre court at Wimbledon in 2017, first time I'd been to watch a match, Nadal iirc, it was really, really boring, more so than watching it on t.v

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast4_Tennis

Scotroutes has it right - rather than tinkering with sexism in tennis, simply end it by removing gender from the game altogether.

No more men's or women's tennis, simply nice, equal tennis.

I stand corrected re it only being wimbledon that goes on and on and on and on and on and on.

I'm not doubting the skill levels JonV, and i can cope with a highlights set up watching the good bits. but you're making the classic mistake appreciation of skill is not the way to make something entertaining its a dull game the points system is stupid there some stupid rules that just make the game longer than it needs to be.

but sitting on a seat for a few hours... thats not going to convince me its not boring.

Most sports are boring to watch, i know they require amassive amount of skill and the abilities of some people are astounding to watch but i'd have much more fun having a go and being absolutely terrible at it.

Nothing will excuse golf being allowed on the tele though.

Changes to 5th set scoring in 2019.

Starting in 2019, Wimbledon, where a tiebreak will be played if the score reaches 12-12 in the final set, and as well in the Australian Open that will have a 10-10 in the deciding set.

Not far enough in my opinion... all GS events should be a tie break at 6 - 6.

So basically lower to 3 sets for any gender.