Carlos Alcaraz calls out tennis for ‘killing’ legacy of Grand Slams with proposed switch from best-of-5 format
Carlos Alcaraz has come out with criticism of the proposed changes to the iconic best-of-five sets format for men’s singles tennis at the Majors. According to Alcaraz, switching the format to best-of-three would be equivalent to “killing the legacy” of the four Grand Slams.
For a long time now, there have been numerous discussions regarding potentially changing the best-of-five format spanning tennis’ four Majors to attract younger audiences to the sport. The common perception is that younger audiences simply don’t have the patience to sit through five-set matches, which can often go past the four or five-hour mark.
Earlier this month, Tennis Australia CEO Andrew Abdo laid bare his desire to introduce certain changes to the Slams, including the possibility of tweaking the best-of-five sets format. At Melbourne’s SportNXT conference, Abdo said:
“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. 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.” (as reported by TNT Sports)
However, Carlos Alcaraz spoke out against changing the traditional format for men’s singles matches at his pre-tournament press conference ahead of his 2026 Japan Open campaign.
“If we take away that (best-of-five sets) and play best-of-three, we’re just killing the legacy of the Grand Slams. We’ve been playing best of five at the Grand Slams since the very beginning and I think that’s what makes those tournaments different and special,” Alcaraz said.
