The Wimbledon tennis tournament is a magnificent spectacle: the strawberries, the Pimm’s, the grass, the atmosphere, the organisation and half a million happy spectators. What should be made more of a spectacle is the women’s matches. At present they play only three sets compared with the men’s five. It’s time for this to change.
The women’s draw should be a celebration of fitness and finesse. The three-set format is an anachronism from the age of petticoats. In 2007 the scores were levelled with the introduction of equal prize money for men and women. This year that amounted to £2.2 million for each of the singles champions. But they can hardly argue that they did equal work for equal pay.
There is no good reason for the disparity other than archaism. At one stage it was thought that women’s tennis was less interesting than men’s and that the fans would not turn up for five-set matches. That is no longer true. In 2015 the women’s US Open tournament sold out quicker than the men’s. It’s not for lack of talent or application, either. Venus Williams would not have reached the last two as the oldest finalist at Wimbledon since 1994 without lashings of both.
The trouble with a three-set match is that it can be over in a flash. The second set on Saturday between Garbiñe Muguruza and Williams took less time than a typical commuter’s Tube journey. Muguruza won it in 26 minutes; the match lasted 77 minutes. Other too-brief encounters included Williams’s 63-minute win over Ana Konjuh and Simona Halep’s 88-minute battle with Victoria Azarenka, long by the standards of the women’s game but a warm-up for some of the men.
The three-set format means that stamina barely features in the women’s game at a time when they are fitter than ever. Forget the fairer sex. Make tennis a fairer game.