Amanda Anisimova has come out against moving women’s Grand Slam matches to best-of-five sets, saying she saw no reason to change a format the women’s game has always used. Her objection was structural rather than physical.
Anisimova, who reached the US Open final last year and arrives in New York with those points to defend, said a switch would force players to rebuild training, recovery and physical preparation around a match length none of them has ever prepared for. She argued that three-set matches already produce long, close contests, pointing to her own run in Flushing Meadows twelve months ago.
Why this one is different. Players have been asked about best-of-five for years and the answers have rarely mattered, because nobody with the authority to change the format was pushing for it. That is no longer the case. Craig Tiley, who put the idea on the agenda in his final months as Tennis Australia chief executive, began work as chief executive of the USTA on 20 July. His appointment was announced on 24 February. The organization he now runs owns and operates the US Open.
Tiley’s proposal was narrow. He suggested the women play best-of-five from the quarterfinals onward at the majors, telling Australian outlet AAP that some late-round matches would have been compelling over the longer distance, and telling the New York Times that audience interest grows the further a match goes. He has not publicly renewed the proposal since taking the American job, and no formal change is on the table for this fortnight.
The scoreboard. The responses have not lined up neatly. Aryna Sabalenka has argued both sides inside a year, saying at Wimbledon in 2025 that the format would add injuries and that she was not ready for it, then backing it at Indian Wells in March on the grounds that her physical strength would probably have earned her more majors.
Coco Gauff has said the change would favour her physically but that she would rather leave the format alone, and that if it did happen it should apply to the whole draw rather than the last three rounds. Iga Swiatek has rejected the change. Jasmine Paolini said in February she did not think it was a good idea. Anisimova’s position has not moved in six months.
Where the decision actually sits. The format at the majors is not the WTA’s to set. Each Grand Slam tournament determines the conditions of its own event, which is why an executive appointment carries more weight in this debate than any player poll. Three of the four majors have said nothing about the proposal in public. The fourth is the one Tiley left.
Two arguments are being conflated in the discussion and are worth separating. One is whether women are physically capable of five sets, a question the players themselves keep declining to make the point.
The other is whether an entire tour should re-engineer its training and recovery model to change the length of at most three matches per player per major. Anisimova, Gauff and Paolini have all answered the second question, not the first.
The 2026 US Open women’s draw will be played over three sets throughout. The main draw begins on Sunday.
