(Paris) The four Grand Slam tournaments have decided to harmonize their ways of concluding matches in five sets, all introducing in 2022 the super tiebreaker (10 winning points with a two-point difference) at 6-6 in the deciding round, they announced on Wednesday.
Posted at 9:53 a.m.
“The Grand Slams office wants to try the experience over the duration of a full season, in consultation with the WTA (women’s circuit), the ATP (men’s circuit) and the ITF (international federation) before making this change permanent. of rule”, indicate the four Majors (Australian Open, Roland-Garros, Wimbledon, US Open) in a joint press release.
“Purists may be disappointed, but we are proud to be able to line up with the other three Grand Slams,” commented Roland-Garros director Amélie Mauresmo.
“From a sporting point of view, it makes sense because we have consistency with the other Grand Slams,” she insisted.
In recent seasons, the French Major had become the only one to let games continue until a player won the last leg by two games. The Australian Open already had the super tiebreaker at 6-6 in the deciding set, Wimbledon had a tiebreaker, but at 12 games all in the deciding set and the US Open had a tiebreaker at 6-6 in the fifth set.
“We also took into account the health of the players because we saw that over the duration of a Grand Slam tournament, starting on 13-11, 16-14, and the tournament is largely mortgaged”, has explained Mauresmo.
“The idea is also to give more satisfaction to the fans who love this decisive and breathless moment at the end of the match. In terms of programming, it gives more visibility, especially for television, even if overall there was only a fairly low percentage of matches that was concerned, ”she noted.