Women’s Tennis Advocate Billie Jean King Lays Bare a ‘3 Out of 5 Sets’ Plan For WTA as She Hopes for a Brighter Future

Over the years during her career, American tennis legend, Billie Jean King, was at the forefront of the fight for equal rights for women in tennis. Be it equal pay or having a fair say in administration matters, the former World Number 1 fought all these issues to bring it on par with men’s tennis. Further, there has been a growing debate about whether women should play the best of 5 sets at the Grand Slams, like men. King has answered this debate, going against popular opinion.

The 79-year-old is active in the tennis world and often shares her opinions on trending events and opinions. Here’s what she said about the prospects of women playing best of 5 sets at the majors.

Billie Jean King wants women to play best of 5 sets

Recently, the American tennis legend was involved in The Tennis Podcast where she talked about various subjects – from Canada’s win at the Billie Jean King Cup to the WTA taking the Saudi Arabia route. During the discussion, she also opened up about whether women’s singles matches at Grand Slams should be best of 5 sets instead of best of 3 sets.

Talking about it, she said, “We have to think about their audiences first and their sponsors are really important. Streaming is getting more important, not just free TV. We have to analyze what isn’t hell of a curve behind it, we got a lot of work ahead of us.”

Further, she went on to add, “There are majors that play 3 out of 5 sets. I think the women should play 3 out of 5 sets or everyone should play 2 out of 3. But if they play 3 out of 5 sets, then that means they have more content.”

King isn’t the only one who has favored women playing best of 5 sets at the Grand Slams. Event ATP star, Stefanos Tsitsipas gave a similar opinion as King.

When Tsitsipas faced criticism for his opinion on the best of 5 sets debate

Last year, the Greek star went against the popular opinion and said that he felt that women should play lengthy matches at the majors like men. However, his comments weren’t taken well by the tennis community.

Tsitsipas said, “There are also a lot of scientists and statisticians, whatever, out there. I’ve been told that women have better endurance than men. I don’t know. Maybe they can also play best-of-five, I guess.”

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His views invited reactions from across the tennis world. Stars like Naomi Osaka and Karolina Pliskova made fun of his comments while fans slammed him for his comments.

Do you think that women should play the best of 5 sets at Grand Slams? Let us know your views in the comments below.

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