"To me, its just too long": Jessica Pegula not in favour of five-set women's matches at Grand Slams

America’s Jessica Pegula has stated that she does not want women’s tennis matches at Grand Slams. There have been numerous discussions in recent years about whether women’s tennis matches should be extended to five sets from the quarterfinals stage, similar to men’s matches.

The conversation started after a certain section of the tennis community questioned why women’s tennis players should earn a similar amount when their matches are considerably shorter compared to men’s matches. Recently, the French Open final was a glaring example of that. The men’s final, where Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz defeated Italy’s Jannik Sinner in a five-set thriller with a score of 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 7-6, lasted more than five hours (5 hours and 29 minutes) and officially became the longest final in the history of Grand Slams in the Open era. On the other hand, the women’s final, where America’s Coco Gauff came out on top against world number one Aryna Sabalenka with a score of 6-7, 6-2, 6-4, lasted just two hours and 38 minutes.

Pegula, who suffered a shocking defeat in the first round of Wimbledon on Tuesday against Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto, spoke to the media after the match, where she was asked whether she would like to play in five-set matches in the future. In response, Pegula stated that she does not think having five-set matches is a good idea. Pegula was of the opinion that people lose interest in five-set matches and suggested that men’s matches should be reduced to three-set matches at Grand Slams as well.

“Would I wan to play three out of five? No,” she said. “I think I would rather the men play two out of three. I don’t think we all need to start playing three out of five. To me, its just too long. And I personally lose interest watching the matches. I think they are incredible matches and incredible physically and mentally but I am just like do we really need that? I don’t know. Some people love it. I personally will not watch a full five-hour match. People can’t even hold their attention long enough. They say these days with phones, how are they holding their attention for five hours. I don’t know but its just not my thing. I think its harder to win two out of three than it is to win three out of five, and not physically, obviously, but I think it always is going to cater the better player in the long run if you are playing three out of five. So I think you would see a lot more upsets of top players if men played two out of three matches in [Grand] slams.”