NAOMI OSAKA questioned Stefanos Tsitsipas’ suggestion that women should play five sets if they want equal pay.
Male tennis stars play best-of-five-set matches in the Grand Slams but the rest of the circuit and all women’s matches are best-of-three.
Stefanos Tsitsipas weighed in on tennis’ gender pay row with some questionable views
Naomi Osaka laughed off the suggestion by telling Tsitsipas to play best-of-nine sets
All four majors now pay the same for men and women – with Wimbledon the last to agree to the switch in 2007.
Tsitsipas, 23, addressed the gender pay row in sport during this week’s Miami Open.
After beating Alex De Minaur to reach the last 16, the Greek star also said he had been told women have better endurance than men and therefore should be able to go for five sets.
The world No5 said: “I don’t want to be controversial or anything.
“There is also the topic of equal pay and everything, women getting equal pay for playing best-of-three, then getting equal pay for playing best-of-five.
“I don’t know. There are also a lot of scientists and statisticians, whatever, out there. I’ve been told that women have better endurance than men. I don’t know.
“I’m pretty sure you can find a lot of cases where the loser of a Grand Slam won the third set or won the first two sets, still somehow found yourself losing at the end.
“It’s different psychology. I’m sure it allows the greater players, the ones that have more experience when it comes to winning Grand Slam titles, on fighting back.
“I like the best-of-five. I think it gets very physical. It makes for a great show, as well.”
But asked on the comments, smiling Osaka – who has a good friendship with Tsitsipas – replied: “Does he want to play nine sets? If he tries to extend mine, I’m going to extend his.
“This guy is so funny, man. I don’t know. I feel like that would change the structure of tennis. Like people will start doing things differently in the gym and stuff like that.
“It will probably also take a very long time to be implemented, but also, a man is talking about a women’s sport, so I don’t think his idea is going to go through.”
The Japanese 24-year-old three-time Grand Slam champ added: “I don’t want to be rude. I’m really trying to structure this in a way that’s not off-putting, but I think it’s decades of hard work.
“Up until now, women have been putting in the work. It’s not just like, oh, it’s come out of nowhere that you get paid the same.
“The history of the WTA has been leading them into advocating for equal pay with Billie Jean King, Venus [Williams], Serena [Williams] all that.
“I also think ticket sales are important. I think the WTA has really good up-and-comers, the No1 player in the world, Iga [Swiatek], is 20. It’s who people find interesting. Coco [Gauff, 18] is amazing as well.
“For me, I feel like the revenue that you generate, ticket sales, is very important, and I think the WTA is doing a really good job at that.”
The WTA Tour did experiment with five-set matches for their end-of-season finals between 1984 and 1998 but then reverted to best-of-three.
There have been calls from some within tennis to shake up Grand Slams to have all men’s and women’s early-round singles matches as best-of-three and then both draws moving to best-of-five from, for example, the quarter-finals onwards.
Tsitsipas was dumped out of the Miami Open by Spanish teenager Carlos Alcarez while Osaka made a safe passage into the semis.
