Just In: Australian Open bosses decide on scrapping best-of-five format as statement released

The Australian Open has confirmed that it will still host five-set matches in 2027, after Tennis Australia chief executive Andrew Abdo suggested the tournament could experiment with a shorter format.

But the grand slam has confirmed that there will be five-set tennis come the turn of the year when action returns to Melbourne.

While innovation is part of the AO’s DNA, five-set tennis is here to stay,” the Australian Open said in a statement. “We’ll reveal more on what’s coming to AO 2027 soon.”

Abdo, who replaced Craig Tiley as Australia’s tennis chief indicated that the Australian Open could see a host of changes to help the sport evolve.

“Sport is entertainment. And clearly there’s unbelievable athleticism involved with the sport at that level. But the rules and the format and the product has to evolve,” Abdo said at the SportNXT conference in Melbourne.

And so a short-form version of that, who knows? Maybe in the future, Slams at the different rounds, or at different lengths of duration, maybe we’re not playing best-of-five all the way through, maybe the point scoring system changes.

“Maybe there are different permutations to how we engage and entertain audiences without losing the fabric, and what really makes the sport special.

“I think those are the questions that we need to explore and discover, and I think there’s a place for evolving that.

“If you listen to the purists, they’ll say, ‘don’t touch that’. But actually… if you look at sports around the world, if you’re not thinking about that product in a way that’s contemporary, in a way that’s going to connect with young people, then I think you’re going to be left behind.”