Australian Open 2022

Collins leads 5-1 second set and looks much more confident.

5-5 second set.

4 championship points

Frankly ridiculous in this day & age that the women aren't playing best of five sets in these big tournaments. Would be a truer test, more intriguing, allow for comebacks and give the public value for money. What are they afraid of?

It’s crazy that they get paid the same prize money as the men. They should only get 60%.

Given we’ve just seen a player go two breaks of serve ahead and then immediately squander it, in what way are comebacks not allowed currently?!

Come on, we've all seen great 5 setters where a player loses the first two but battles back into the match and takes it to 5.

The womens game is more like a sprint/ middle distance race than a marathon.

Regardless, there's no reason at all from a biological point of view that women should not play best of 5.

They are lucky to get 60% of what the men get in most other tournaments (joint events or separate), despite all those being best of 3 for both men and women. Is that not crazy as well? At present, Indian Wells, Miami and Madrid are the only tournaments where it is equal pay for equal work. Even in other big joint tournaments like Rome and Cincinnati, there is a huge disparity. If anything, the gap widened during the pandemic, especially at the smaller events,

Also, be careful what you wish for, One consequence of the women playing best of 5 in all rounds of a slam would be women and men playing on alternate days. Personally, I'd prefer it were for just the last 3 or 4 rounds, which would be more equitable and workable.

I think it is more of a time issue rather than the women not wanting to play the best of 5. The tournaments would need to be extended to 3 or 4 weeks or number of players cut to allow both mens and womens go to 5 sets.

Not a Barty fan either, as you say just can't warm to her, but fair play to her for winning, she must have been under enormous pressure to win her home slam

I don't think Nadal will look that good though. If he doesn't win it in 3 he won't win and that will be down to fitness levels. The difference is Nadal is 35 years old and the fact he has reached the final at his age is a bit of a joke tbh and doesn't say much for the men's game.

Tsitsipas has no excuse for being physically drained so easily.

Regardless of the standard, best of 5 would require a bit more work and graft. Fitness, stamina and athleticism would play a bigger part.

He shouldn't be though. His talent and ability will be better but in a sport like tennis that advantage should be drastically reduced due to the physical nature of the sport. It isn't reduced because the calibre of the people he has faced is fairly poor.