WTA boss Stacey Allaster has called the bluff of those agitating for more equality between the tennis sexes, saying in Singapore that women would be happy to play best-of-five-sets at grand slams.
The Canadian, visiting the venue for the year-end championships from 2014, appeared to be returning fire at the suggestion from Wimbledon winner Andy Murray that women should play the same long matches as men to earn their equal prize payout.
“We are ready, willing and able to play five-set matches in the major tournaments. All the others have to do is ask us” said Allaster.
What she failed to mention was the elephant in the room – the complex scheduling of the majors, which would surely descend into even more chaos were women’s matches to stretch out to multiple hours as many men’s contests already do.
“To make the schedule will be challenging. It’s already hard for organizers to deal with five-set matches only for men,” she said. “We think that three-set matches are very much enjoyed by our fans. To have both women and men playing in long matches could cause major delays on the tournaments’ schedules.”
After laying down her brazen dare to the tennis establishment – which she must surely believe will never be taken up – the executive added: “We prefer three-set matches, but if the grand slam tournaments require us to play as long as the men, we want to say that we are ready to do that.”
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