The 2023 Australian Open is underway, and in only three days of action, the tournament has already gifted us with some incredible performances, including Matteo Berrettini and Andy Murray’s five setter which ended in a five set tie-break win. And now many people have doubts about the rules. If you want to live stream the tournament in the US, you can do so with fuboTV (free-trial).
A Grand Slam, especially on the men’s side, is always about endurance. Not in vain, the longer GS final took place precisely in Australia, between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal in 2012, which ended in favor of the Serbian with a score of 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 and 7-5.
However, while tennis’ matches can go on as long as the two players keep fighting, due to TV rights and concerns about players’ health and retaining fan’s attention, the Grand Slam board has considered changing the 5th set rules, especially regarding the tiebreak.
How does the final tie-break set work in the Australian Open?
In March of 2022, the Grand Slam Board, which represents all the four Slams, announced that all majors will have a trial of a 10-point tie-break which will be played at 6-6 in the final set. However, before that announcement, Australia was the only major to feature the tiebreak.
Meanwhile, the other Slams had different rules. While at Roland Garros, the final set was played out until one player won it by two games, at Wimbledon and the US Open it was decided by a 12-point tie break.
The measure also serves as a way to “create greater consistency in the rules.” However, in recent years there have been concerns around finding ways to shorten the games, to keep them interesting, and maybe retain more audiences. But there’s a lot of reservations about changing the rules.