Women Should Play Five Sets

Although I have never played on the surface, I’m sure playing on red clay must be really fun. The topspin you add to the ball has way more effect when it bounces and the point is almost never over due to the sliding from one side to another. It somewhat checks out why I enjoy watching the French Open every year. However, there were some things the organization can’t be proud about. The crowds were getting so rowdy that they were forced to ban the sale of alcohol. Novak Djokovic's third-round match against Musetti lasted 4 hours and 29 minutes, and Iga Swiatek's fourth-round match versus Potapova lasted 40 minutes. I'm going to talk about both of these matches because I do think they're interesting and significant.

Pay Wall

To start off, NBC put the Djokovic match behind a paywall. Let me tell you what happened. I know that on the weekends the coverage switches from the Tennis Channel to NBC. Okay, not a problem. I kind of like NBC because you got McEnroe commentating. He's one of my favorite commentators. So, I started looking through my TV. Where is NBC? Where is NBC Sports? I can't find it. I go on Google and it turns out that the match is going to be on Peacock, and I'm looking for Peacock on my TV and I can't find Peacock. So, I go back on Google, and it turns out that Peacock is a streaming service, and you have to pay for the streaming service to be able to watch that match.

For the first time in a long time in the United States, one of the best matches of the entire tournament was put behind a paywall. I understand that this is not that big of a deal because it's only one match. However, NBC loves to gobble up the weekend matches because these are going to be the most viewed, especially when we're talking about the semifinals and the finals. But putting a tennis match behind a paywall is so ridiculous. People are so upset about it.

I'm for sure not affiliated with Tennis Channel at all, but I always talk positively about Tennis Channel because I'm very thankful that we have it. I have Tennis Channel Plus; I love it, and Tennis Channel provides a great service. However, these other companies want a piece of the pie, and they cover some of the matches, and it always turns into a disaster, especially when NBC does it. I get that NBC is a powerful organization and that they're going to have the weekends, but please do not put tennis behind a paywall in the United States because people are going to be very upset.

Djokovic’s Epic

Now let's get on to the matches. Novak Djokovic wasn't doing too well. He was down two sets to one. It was deep into the night, past 1:00 in the morning, and he won the last two sets 6-3, 6-0. Maybe one of the most impressive performances in Djokovic's career because he wasn't doing well physically. Musseti was playing well, and it just shows you that Djokovic is mentally the toughest player in the history of tennis.

Looking at the draw, he came back two days later to play another five setter, but this time against Francisco Cerundolo. Once again, he wasn’t at his best, but you could still see him sliding around the court and making crazy backhands. Unfortunately, he broke something in his knee and had to withdraw from the tournament the following day.

Of course, the favorite to come through to the final on the bottom half was Zverev, but you couldn’t count out Medvedev, who was playing well and made it through the fourth round. But these are the types of matches that build Djokovic's confidence, and while this might have been exhausting physically, history has shown that Djokovic, when he gets through these tough matches early in slams, ends up winning slams.

If Ruud and Djokovic had met in the quarters, it would have been a really tough test since Djokovic lost to Ruud in Monte Carlo. Nevertheless, it's not easy to beat Djokovic in a best-of-three match, but imagine having to beat Djokovic in a best-of-five. Just put yourself in Musetti's shoes. He's up two sets to one, he's playing unbelievable tennis, he's got Djokovic on the ropes, it's in the middle of the night, and this guy comes back and plays unbelievable and wins the fifth set 6-0. So, to beat Djokovic in a Grand Slam tournament is maybe the most difficult thing in the game of tennis.

Iga’s Clinic

Alright, now let's talk about the Swiatek-Potapova match. This was one of the most interesting matches that I've seen in a long time, and while it doesn't appear so because it was a 40-minute match where Potapova won 10 points, it was an absolute beatdown. 6-0, 6-0, reminiscent of the 1988 final between Graf and Zvereva. Here, Graf had won 6-0, 6-0 in 32 minutes. But this was a super important match for Iga because she wanted revenge. Why? Well, in juniors, where Potapova was dominating, they faced each other seven times, and Iga won zero matches.

In other words, Potapova was 7-0 against Iga prior to their first head-to-head on the WTA tour. And what does Iga do after losing seven times in a row to Potapova? She destroys her 6-0, 6-0 in 40 minutes. This shows you how much passion for the game Iga has, how much desire to win she has, and also shows you how much Iga has developed her game in the last few years. There's a huge discrepancy in the level of play on clay. Potapova is a great player; however, Iga was able to expose her weaknesses in movement. She was opening up the court, and Potapova was out of position too many times, and she had absolutely no chance to even get a game. In fact, not a single game went to deuce in this match.

Final Thoughts

Let me finish off with the discrepancy in time: 4 hours and 29 minutes versus 40 minutes. Of course, this is going to create headlines because men and women are getting paid the same. I'm not going to talk about equal pay today, but here's the thing. There are a couple of factors at play. First of all, we have a player who's so far superior to the other players on clay, and it's Iga. It's so much reminiscent of a prime Nadal, where he used to win very easy matches at Roland Garros. Even against Federer, he blew him off the court once. So, this can happen if there's a huge discrepancy in play where matches don't last that long. An easy solution for the WTA is to make the female players play best out of five. I know this is going to be tough because they already have problems with scheduling.

They should have never scheduled that Djokovic-Musetti match that late. So, this will never happen, but it would be an easy solution to these blowout matches that can happen on the WTA tour, especially because of the fact that they play best out of three sets. There have been some incredible WTA matches this year that went to distance. For example, the Swiatek-Osaka match in the second round was a phenomenal match. Osaka had that match on her racket, but Swiatek managed to pull through in the end. That was a match of high caliber that went the distance. Clearly, it doesn't mean that the WTA is terrible; it's just something that happens every now and then in the right circumstances. You will get a blowout match even a score like 6-0, 6-0.