“The Grand Slams are playing best of five. If we take away that and play the best of three, I think we’re killing the legacy of the Grand Slams and killing the Grand Slams,” he said. “We have been playing best-of-five matches at the Grand Slams since the very beginning, and I think that is what makes those tournaments different and special. So I wouldn’t touch anything from that, and for me it’s okay to play the best of five.”
The question was not hypothetical. Andrew Abdo, who took over as chief executive of Tennis Australia from Craig Tiley last month, told the SportNXT conference that the format was not untouchable: “Maybe in the future, Slams at different rounds or at different lengths of duration. Maybe we’re not playing best-of-five all the way through.” He framed it as a way of reaching younger audiences, while acknowledging that purists would object.
The reaction was quick enough that the Australian Open itself moved to close the subject before Alcaraz was asked about it, posting: “While innovation is part of the AO’s DNA, five-set tennis is here to stay. We’ll reveal more on what’s coming to AO 2027 soon.” The idea is not new either.
Novak Djokovic floated a hybrid version after Wimbledon 2024, with best-of-three in the opening rounds, while Tiley had spent part of this year arguing the opposite case, for women’s Grand Slam matches to move to five sets.
Playing a little bit less, and not having that amount of tournaments in a row, week after week.
Alcaraz has his own reason to be associated with the debate, having been involved in the match that gave it fresh impetus: his US Open meeting with Ben Shelton, which finished at 3.33am in New York and revived the argument about how long tennis asks its players to stay on court.
What he would change, he said in the same press conference, is not the length of the matches but the number of them.
“I would say the calendar. I’ve always said that it has to change,” Alcaraz said. “Playing a little bit less, and not having that amount of tournaments in a row, week after week. So I would change that, definitely I would change that.”
That is a position he has held in public for two years, since he said at the Laver Cup in Berlin in September 2024 that the schedule was “probably going to kill us in some way”, and one he defended again in London last week, arguing that team weeks restore rather than drain him.