"I don't know why they took it away" - Recalling the time Martina Navratilova gave her view on best-of-five-sets format being removed from WTA Finals
Back in 2019, tennis legend Martina Navratilova expressed a strong viewpoint on the best-of-five-sets format being removed from the WTA Finals.
From 1984 through 1998, the WTA Tour Finals championship match was best-of-five. Legendary rivals Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert squared off in the first-ever final to have the best-of-five format. Navratilova prevailed in that match, with a scoreline that read 6-3, 7-5, 6-1. However, the format was eventually abandoned in 1998.
Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova appeared in a 2019 interview with BT Sport, where they spoke about their feelings on the format's elimination. Navratilova, a nine-time Wimbledon champion, expressed her displeasure and claimed to not understand why it was taken away.
"I don't know why they took it away because it was a big controversy when they started to receive us like let's give it a go. Of course we wanted to play when you get equal prize money and the majors and the beef against that was well we only play two out of three," Martina Navratilova said.
"We had maybe 10 years of that and then they stopped it. Again I don't know why they stopped it," she added.
"I tell you what it wasn't fun, it was fun for Martina Navratilova cause she won but it was not fun for me" - Chris Evert
Chris Evert, though, had a different viewpoint to share. She recalled her best-of-five-sets encounter with Navratilova and stated that it was difficult to adjust to the format without any other tournaments in the year using it.
"If you don't psychologically, if you don't do this during the year and they just spring it on you in one tournament, you're just not used to it," she said.
Additionally, Evert said she felt tired after losing two close sets and that her level dropped in the third when she realized she didn't she could win three more sets at that stage.
"I tell you what it wasn't fun. It was fun for you cause you won but it was not fun for me. I lost the first two sets against her (Navratilova), and if you notice the third set was 6-1. I mean I was thinking to myself, I was so tired, the first two sets were close and I was dejected, and I'm like, can I win three sets in row and I couldn't. So kind of my level went down at that stage," Evert said.