Tennis | Wimbledon 2024 | Novak Djokovic urges tennis to innovate itself as five set debate continues

07/11/2024 10:13 AM

By Tony Fairbairn at Wimbledon

• Seven-time champion Novak Djokovic has urged tennis to innovate itself amid the rise of padel and pickleball
• Meanwhile the five set debate continues with the likes of Ben Shelton, Stan Wawrinka and Daniil Medvedev having their say as to whether five set tennis should stay

LONDON, ENGLAND – Novak Djokovic has urged tennis to innovate itself as the debate over best-of-five set tennis continues at Wimbledon.

Tennis has continued to innovate over the years itself whether it's through technology, outfits, rackets or rules.

Every sport goes through an evolution and innovation process and tennis is no different as the sport continues to be more advanced on and off the court.

However, one thing has stayed the same and that's the format at Grand Slams as despite renewed pressure by those involved in the sport, Grand Slams has remained best of five sets for the men's game.

The format has gradually received it's critics but still remains a very popular one with the best of five set format providing drama and entertainment, setting the scene for some of the most iconic matches in tennis' history.

Although the players' opinion carry strong weight there is a feeling and momentum towards best of five sets being scrapped as the debate continues to grow with each Grand Slam tournament.

Daniil Medvedev is one player that prefers best of three sets and had his say on the debate surrounding the format.

"I always said that I completely, like, understand it. I think it’s very spectacular and good. If you ask me, I would prefer three sets," Medvedev claimed.

"That’s just my personal opinion. I don’t even have, like, a valid explanation for this. Just how I want it. But what is true, that it makes it much more intense mentally, physically. Again, like Australian Open I did this year, was pretty special memories because of the five sets I won.

"I think five sets is much tougher for the body, so can get more injuries. From what I hear from many people on TV, okay, if you have a crazy five-setter that goes five hours, it’s great and it stays in the history. But if it’s like a little bit up-and-down four-setter that goes for 3 hours 30, I think many people stop watching it from time to time and they go in and out. In general, yeah, I think for the TVs is not easy not knowing when the match exactly is going to be because of the previous matches. It’s the same for the players. All, like, these small details, I would be, like, okay with three sets.

"At the same time, who knows, maybe we would have a different record, different record holders if it was out of three. That makes it also beautiful at the same time. I’m like somewhere in the middle, but a little bit leaning towards three sets."

However, Medvedev is in the minority in terms of players that would want the format as a number of players prefer the longer format.

One of the strongest advocates for the format is Stan Wawrinka as the former Grand Slam champion said that best of five sets has to stay.

"No. I think should not be changed from five sets. I think five sets has always been there, it’s the history of the sport," Wawrinka firmly said.

"It’s what make it also beautiful. Tough mentally, physically. I think physically is not the tournament in five set that are the most demanding. It’s more about the season, how long is the season, all the tournament all the time. That make it tough for the body. I think Grand Slam and five sets has to be there."

There is also the benefits of being able to problem solve your way through matches which can benefit a players development.

This is something Ben Shelton pointed out as the American spoke about after his match with Denis Shapovalov.

"There’s a lot of things I appreciate about five sets. The amount of time you are out there on the court. It’s a physical test. You have to be ready to go the distance, and you have to be fit and in shape," Shelton explained.

"There’s also a lot of time for guys to make adjustments, so you can’t just really blow a guy off the court in one way. Most of the time you have to be able to figure things out and make your own adjustments when the guy makes changes and starts figuring it out. Today Shapo started doing a really good job in the fourth set of returning my serve, finding a way to neutralize, so I had to change it up. In the fifth set I served almost every serve into the body and serve and volleyed.

"I think that’s the part that I like the most about it: the game within the game."

Novak Djokovic urges tennis to innovate itself, wants five sets to stay

Tennis is one of the most popular sports in the world but has faced commercial and community pressure from the likes of padel and pickleball in parts of Europe and America respectively.

Big tennis networks especially in American are now showing pickleball over tennis which has angered tennis fans but has appealed to the casual demographic.

This has only been exaggerated by the fact that tennis stars such as Jack Sock, Sam Querrey and Eugenie Bouchard have made the switch from tennis to pickleball.

The move causes a potential problem to tennis in the commercial market and forces the sport to make drastic changes in order to bring in a more varied an bigger demographic.

After his fourth round match, Novak Djokovic discussed the research that he has conducted with the PTPA and concurred that sport needs to innovate itself especially at club and community level.

"But in terms of innovation in tennis, in our sport, I think it’s necessary. I think we have to, other than slams, figure out how to attract young audience. I think tennis, from one hand, is in a good place, but at the same time when we look at Formula 1, for example, and what they have done in terms of marketing, in terms of growth of the sport, in terms of the races around the world and how popular they are, I think we need to do a better job on our respective tours," Djokovic detailed.

"The Grand Slams are always going to do well. I think our tours need to do better. And we are lucky to be very historic and very global sport. But I think one of the studies that was done by PTPA three, four years ago, showed that tennis is the third or fourth most popular sport in the world, most watched sport in the world, along with cricket.

"Number one is obviously football, or soccer as you call it in States. Second one is basketball. Then it’s tennis and cricket. But tennis is number 9 or 10 on the list of all sports in terms of using its popularity, commercializing or capitalizing on that. I think there is a huge space for growth. That we are quite fractioned as a sport. So there’s quite a bit of things I think for us to really collectively look at and try to improve it.

"And we need to grow the number of players that live from this sport. Very rarely do I see in the media that you guys are writing about the fact that you have only 350 or 400 players, both men, women, singles, doubles, across the board who live from this sport on this planet. That’s for me deeply concerning.

"Yes, we talk about the Grand Slam winner wins this or that. Then it’s always the focus on the grand prize. But what about the base level? I think we are still doing a very poor job there, very poor job. Tennis is a very global sport and it’s loved by millions of children that pick up a racquet and want to play. But we don’t make it accessible. We don’t make it so affordable. Especially in countries like mine that doesn’t have a strong federation, that has Grand Slam or history or big budgets.

"I think collectively we all have to come together and understand how to maintain the sport’s, let’s say, foundation or create a new foundation, a cornerstone of really what tennis is about, which is the base level, right, the club level. Now we have the paddle or padel, as you call it in the States, that is growing and emerging. People kind of have fun with it and say, Yeah, but tennis is tennis.

"Tennis is the king or queen of all the racquet sports, that’s true. But on a club level, tennis is endangered. If we don’t do something about it, as I said, globally or collectively, paddle, pickle ball in States, they’re going to convert all the tennis clubs into paddle and pickle ball because it’s just more economical.

"You have one tennis court. You can build three paddle courts on one tennis court. You do the simple math. It’s just much more financially viable for an owner of a club to have those courts. Those are just some of the things I wanted to share. In the grand scheme of things, I feel like we need to address all of these, I feel like, challenges and issues for us really. They have been out there for a while, but I don’t think we have been addressing them in a proper way."

Djokovic raises some extremely valid points in terms of cost of price at club and community level as many people may find it unaffordable.

This is only going to decrease participation levels in the sport which may lead to less interest in the sport.

There has been not enough investment in the lower levels of the game in terms of facilities, prize money and improving opportunities for players to create a sustainable lifestyle.

The Serb mainly thinks the problem is at community level but when it comes to the argument of best of five sets at Grand Slam, Djokovic believes the format is the best format although he can see why it would be necessary for a compromise to be made.

"I mean, five-set matches, nowadays you can only see them in Grand Slams, right? That’s what I guess excites both players and the crowd. Most of the people love to see it. We as players like to play it. Maybe not that often," Djokovic said.

"I think if you’re physically fitter I guess than your opponent or have more experience than your opponent in best-of-five, it still gives you a sense of confidence and tranquility, even though you’re two sets to love down. Of course, there is a sense of urgency. You still feel like there’s still quite a lot of time for me to kind of bounce back.

"Throughout my career, I’ve had quite a few matches where I was coming back from two sets to love or two sets to one down. Winning record mostly, positive score in a fifth setter. I enjoyed those throughout my career. I think they’re an important aspect of the history and of the future, as well, of the sport.

"I would support it, particularly in the latter stages of the Grand Slam. I’ve seen there’s been quite a lot of debate on that. You guys have been asking a lot of players whether the best-of-five should be turned into best-of-three in the slams. I don’t think so. I think they should stay best-of-five.

"The only thing that I’m maybe thinking it could be good to consider is the opening rounds that could go best-of-three, then you move into the hybrid of best-of-fives from the fourth rounds or quarters. I don’t know. That’s just me, my thinking. I think best-of-five, particularly in the last three or four rounds of a slam, you need to keep."

The consensus is that best of five sets are here to stay for the time being as the sport continues to form an identity.

However as tennis tries to maintain its place at the top of the commercial market it may be necessary for the sport to change if the sport begins to lose popularity.

One thing is guaranteed and that's tennis has its priorities wrong because in order to build the top of the game, you also need to continue to develop the grassroots levels of the sport before the sport suffers a natural death.

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