Choosing to stay 'old school': Kim Clijsters disagrees wholeheartedly with Novak Djokovic's proposed tennis ideas

Novak Djokovic's ideas to change tennis has seen a lot of debate by fans. His vision to shorten matches has been seen as controversial by many with former World No.1 Kim Clijsters going against the view of the 24-time Grand Slam champion.

Tennis is seemingly going in a direction where they are targeting a younger audience as they look to grow the sport. In doing so, they are siding against the drawn-out format regularly seen on the ATP and WTA Tour's and putting forward more exciting and action-packed rules. Take UTS created by Patrick Mouratoglou, the exhibition which entices many top names. Even the NextGen Finals which sees sets played up until four rather than six and no ad scoring.

Djokovic also had his say when speaking with Nick Knows Ball. “We should change the format of the scoring,” the Serbian said. “Not play up to six games in a set, but play up to four. Possibly no ad, best of five sets, keep the matches within a two-hour window. It’s best for everyone.”

A similar format has been introduced in the US Open mixed doubles set to be played out in Fan Week. It was hugely popular last year with fans flooding Flushing Meadows to get a glimpse of the top players despite being on court for a shortened period of time.

Djokovic's views have been widely criticised by many who are very much against revamping the sport. Four-time Grand Slam champion Clijsters had her say on the topic, opting to keep to the traditional format while passionately arguing against Djokovic's ideas.

“I think there’s nothing greater than seeing a four or five hour match. And they don’t happen every day, right?” she said on her Love All podcast.

"But to have a few of them in a tournament, especially if you can have a Novak against Sinner or Novak against Rafa, Rafa against Roger, like those moments I feel stand out so much in the history of our sport. And it would be a shame if we don’t have that."

At the end of the day money talks, and the Belgian looked at it from that perspective. “So I don’t think I want to see that. But I get, you know, from especially from Novak’s side and I hear it a lot in the business world as well. There’s a lot of people who talk about that TV and it would make things a lot easier for a lot of parties that are investing into the sport."

Simply, she did not see the necessary reasons to change the sport. “But I think as a player I’m also kind of old school like I don’t like to see a lot of changes to our sport. Like I remember when the on court coaching was happening, I was like what are we doing? Taking something that’s good and changing it.

“I’m pretty old school like that, but I like seeing those couple of matches, a Slam where it’s like this super intense and a battle. That’s what you don’t have in any other sport. So, I absolutely love that we have that.”

These changes suggested by Djokovic shows tennis organisers incentive to grab the attention of a younger audience, pulling in more attention and money. The problem is that a lot of tennis fans may be against this move, including Clijsters. That could push away a number of them in the process with its soul at stake. For now, these have been introduced in a number of exhibitions but it is creeping onto the main tour as forementioned with the NextGen Finals and US Open mixed doubles.