Rennae Stubbs has proposed a radical change to the latter stages of Grand Slams in light of Novak Djokovic\u2019s gruelling quarter-final win over Felix Auger-Aliassime.<\/p>\n
Jannik Sinner and Linda Noskova won the men\u2019s and women\u2019s Wimbledon titles, respectively, last weekend as punters were treated to two engaging finals.<\/p>\n
The Italian came from a set down against Alexander Zverev to retain his title, while Noskova finally got over the line against fellow Czech Karolina Muchova in three sets after serving for the match in the second.<\/p>\n
One of the most anticipated contests of the tournament was, arguably, between world No 1 Sinner and the man who beat him in five sets at the Australian Open<\/a>, Djokovic.<\/p>\n The 39-year-old won a remarkable quarter-final over Auger-Aliassime in five hours and 15 minutes, but he didn\u2019t have much left in the tank against Sinner, who saw him off in straight sets.<\/p>\n Wimbledon: The Carlos Alcaraz weapon Jannik Sinner has quietly made his own<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2018He\u2019s in a whole heap of trouble\u2019 \u2013 Andre Agassi makes worrying Novak Djokovic claim<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as\u00a0<\/span>a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n As a result, Serena Williams<\/a>\u2018 coach, Stubbs, feels that the men should should play four sets and then finish with a tiebreak instead of playing a fifth set and the women should adopt that from the quarter-final or semi-final stage.<\/p>\n On the latest episode of The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast<\/a>, her co-host, Caitlin Thompson, said she wished the women played best of five sets from the quarter-final or semi-final onwards to \u201cguarantee\u201d higher-quality matches and avoid situations like Amanda Anisimova\u2019s double bagel defeat to Iga Swiatek in last year\u2019s Wimbledon<\/a> final.<\/p>\n In response, the four-time Grand Slam doubles winner said,\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t agree with that. You and I have been talking about getting rid of best of five forever. I think a balance of four if it goes two sets all and then we play a 10-point tiebreak, which is basically the same thing anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n Thompson then chimed in,\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019re just throwing in an entirely new format that nobody plays on any tour whatsoever, I love that!\u201d<\/p>\n Stubbs said that a best of five set match for the women would go on even longer as their serves aren\u2019t as potent as the men. She cited how Djokovic<\/a> was \u201cdead\u201d for his semi-final with Sinner and if his Auger-Aliassime<\/a> match was an hour or so shorter, it could have been a better last four contest.<\/p>\n She continued, \u201cIf we\u2019re talking about women\u2019s tennis and no offence to the women or men, the women are going to be playing longer matches because they don\u2019t have the big serves.<\/p>\n \u201cYou saw the men\u2019s, they are playing long rallies as well now, but they do have huge serves and they win a lot of points on their serve, particularly on grass.<\/p>\n \u201cYou won\u2019t see that quick a point all the time, and certainly not on clay with the guys, they are going to be playing 40-ball rallies every time. If we\u2019re going to do it for both, let\u2019s do it for both, and when it\u2019s two sets all, play a 10-point tiebreak.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a tennis purist, I love watching great tennis. But I don\u2019t want to see it for five hours and 15 minutes like we had to with the quarter-finals with Novak and FAA. Arguably that **** Novak for the next match against Sinner<\/a>; he was dead!<\/p>\n \u201cJannik played the most perfect match in the semi-final. I was there, I watched it in person, and Novak was just a step slow on everything. Now is it because he\u2019s 39? Probably.<\/p>\n \u201cIs Jannik the best player in the world when he\u2019s on? Probably. But if it doesn\u2019t go five and a half hours in the previous match, maybe four hours, does Novak have a little bit extra in his tank? Probably.\u201d<\/p>\n In the past, women have played best of five set matches. Indeed, between 1984 and 1998, the WTA Tour finals\u2019 championship match utilised that longer format.<\/p>\n Logistically, a Grand Slam would not be wrapped up in two weeks if women also played best of five set tennis but perhaps if Stubbs\u2019 idea was brought in for the end of the tournament, that could work.<\/p>\n Stubbs<\/a> finished by saying, \u201cI think there\u2019s one way to get around this and we can satisfy everybody. From the semis, quarters maybe, you play best of five and you play best of four with a 10-point tiebreak. What\u2019s the difference? What a great culmination of four amazing sets to go, \u2018Okay, 10 points for the match\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n These would be quite radical reforms for the sport but Stubbs thinks she\u2019s found the sweet spot. Despite that, such changes seems highly unlikely.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Iga Swiatek\u2019s Wimbledon loss to Alex Eala left Agnieszka Radwanska \u2018worried\u2019 for one reason<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Serena Williams\u2019 coach proposes radical Grand Slam overhaul after Novak Djokovic\u2019s Wimbledon exit<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rennae Stubbs has proposed a radical change to the latter stages of Grand Slams in light of Novak Djokovic\u2019s gruelling quarter-final win over Felix Auger-Aliassime. Jannik Sinner and Linda Noskova won the men\u2019s and women\u2019s Wimbledon titles, respectively, last weekend as punters were treated to two engaging finals. The Italian came from a set down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/strong><\/h2>\n