Australian Open finally saw the doubles team of American Taylor Townsend and Czechia’s Katerina Siniakova lift the trophy on Sunday. At Rod Laver Arena, the top-seeded ladies cruised to victory. They defeated No.3 seeds Hsieh Su-Wei and Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-3 in an intense battle. Undoubtedly, it was a delight for fans present at the venue to witness their match-winning performance. But the same can’t be said for those who were watching the live action from their homes on small screens. At least that’s what WTA icon Pam Shriver highlighted. And now Martina Navratilova has come forward, echoing a similar sentiment. But what’s the exact issue?

As the women’s doubles title clash wrapped up, tennis legend Pam Shriver took to X. She brought up an annoying problem regarding the Australian Open venue. She criticized the organizers for not utilizing Rod Laver Arena’s roofs to prevent shadows. Apparently, it became difficult for her to view the players properly on the court. Why? It was due to the shadows as she was watching the match on her phone screen.

In a post, dated January 26, Shriver wrote “Congratulations to doubles winners but can we do better than this when roofs are available to help with shadows? Doubles viewers on TV deserve better than this. 🙏”

Shriver’s former doubles partner and tennis icon Martina Navratilova didn’t take long to echo her thoughts. Never one to shy away from expressing her opinion strongly, she replied to Shriver’s post saying, “Amen to that!”

But this isn’t the first time Martina Navratilova has expressed her unfiltered thoughts at the 2025 Australian Open. A few days back, she had some strong words for the crowd that booed 24-time Major winner Novak Djokovic. He had to retire from the semifinal match against Alexander Zverev due to a persisting hamstring injury.

Martina Navratilova says crowd reaction to Novak Djokovic’s walkover was “disgusting” in Australian Open semifinal

During the quarterfinal stage, Novak Djokovic sustained a major injury in his leg. Playing against Carlos Alcaraz, he had to take a medical time-out (MTO) to treat his pain in the middle of the match during the second set. Many fans didn’t like him taking the MTO in that encounter. It was because, after that, he was seen playing normally in the third and fourth sets. To many, it seemed as if he didn’t have an injury in the first place. But it was a muscle tear.

Then during the SF round on Friday, Djokovic decided to leave immediately after he lost the first set 6-7 in a tie-break against Zverev. He realized his hamstring injury wasn’t going to get healed anytime soon. However, a section of the crowd at Rod Laver Arena booed him while he was walking away from the court after retiring.

Later, Martina Navratilova expressed extreme disappointment about the crowd’s behavior. Speaking on Tennis Channel, the ex-pro said, “What I’m really upset about is the crowd booing Novak.” reported Tennis365 on January 25. “Seriously? Nobody wanted to finish that match more than Novak. Nobody. And then they boo. I mean seriously, it’s just disgusting.”

Moreover, she also hoped for Djokovic to have a speedy recovery. “We’ll see how he can bounce back from this one physically and then we’ll see if he has it still emotionally, but it just gets old.”

Coming back to Navratilova and Shriver’s reactions to the women’s doubles final at Rod Laver Arena, do you think the organizers should have utilized the roofs to prevent shadows? Let us know in the comments below.