Nick Kyrgios uses Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz as examples to suggest radical change for Grand Slams' best-of-five-sets format
Nick Kyrgios used the examples of Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz to share his radical idea to transform tennis at Grand Slams. According to the Australian, men's matches at Majors should be best-of-three-set affairs up until the quarterfinals.
Apart from the Grand Slams, men's matches at the ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour levels are all best-of-three sets. Typically, such matches tend to end quickly compared to contests played out at Majors. Meanwhile, in recent years, several men's Grand Slam matches, especially those that start late at night, have finished in the early hours of the morning.
For instance, at the 2024 Australian Open, the second-round matchup between eventual runner-up Daniil Medvedev and Emil Ruusuvuori finished at 3:39 AM local time in Melbourne, having started at 11:16 PM on the previous night.
Recently, Nick Kyrgios, who is set to return to competitive action in the 2025 season after spending almost two years on the sidelines with injury, spoke up about the subject. During an appearance on The AO Show podcast on Monday, November 18, the former World No. 13 said that best-of-three-set matches until the quarterfinals at Grand Slams would lead to fewer scheduling issues.
"I would make Grand Slams best of three (sets) up until the quarterfinals. I think it would save us a lot of effort on scheduling. You know the first week's scheduling gets out of control with both the men's side and the women's side playing best of five and sometimes the women's matches go long, best of three. I mean, men's matches finishing till 2-3 AM, it's just not sustainable," Nick Kyrgios said. (at 22:35).
The 2022 Wimbledon finalist went on to suggest that such a change is likely to see some surprise packages reaching the quarterfinals of Majors.
"I think if you made it best of three until the quarterfinals, you'd see some guys break through to the quarterfinals. Obviously then the better players would end up winning best of five anyway. So I think a best of three until the quarterfinals and from then on, best of five. That's what I would immediately change at a Grand Slam," Kyrgios added.
The 29-year-old later talked about how best-of-three-set matches would make things trickier for established players such as Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz. Kyrgios cited his compatriot Li Tu's example. Tu surprisingly won the second set of his first-round match against Alcaraz at the 2024 US Open but then proceeded to lose as the Spaniard clinched the first, third and fourth sets.
"How many times have we seen one of the best players in the draw lose the first set and you're just like, 'He's going to come back and win it.' It's actually boring. Where like if Novak goes down a set or even when Li Tu, he won a set against Alcaraz early on, that was one set all and then it's one set, that could change Li's entire career. He beats Alcaraz on center court and you become a name," Nick Kyrgios concluded.
Kyrgios had previously aired a similar take in the aftermath of WTA World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka's quarterfinal victory at the 2024 US Open.
"Kinda crazy" - Nick Kyrgios on stark contrast between men's first-round and women's quarterfinal results at US Open 2024
Following eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka's quickfire win over Zheng Qinwen in the 2024 US Open quarterfinals, Nick Kyrgios compared the match to the first-round men's contest between Dan Evans and Karen Khachanov. While Sabalenka and Zheng's match lasted just over an hour, Evans and Khachanov's first-round encounter went on for almost a staggering six hours.
Kyrgios took to X (formerly Twitter) on September 4 and wrote:
"This match will go for just over an hour. Quarter finals. Evans / Khachanov went 5 hours and 45 mins. First round. Maybe we do best of three for the men up until the quarters? Then best of five? But this is kinda crazy"
While Nick Kyrgios is slated to appear at the World Tennis League exhibition team event in December, his competitive return will come at the 2025 Brisbane International.