'I don't want to be rude' - Naomi Osaka reacts to 'funny' Stefanos Tsitsipas call for longer women's matches
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Updated 29/03/2022 at 08:41 GMT
Stefanos Tsitsipas' suggestion that women's matches be extended to best-of-five sets has not exactly gone down well, perhaps predictably. Naomi Osaka has responded to the comments from the Greek star. "Does he want to play nine sets?" she asked. "If he tries to extend mine, I'm going to extend his. I don't want to be rude. I'm really trying to structure this in a way that's not like off-putting."
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Naomi Osaka has given her reaction to "funny" Stefanos Tsitsipas after he suggested that women's matches could be best-of-five sets.
World No. 5 Tsitsipas raised eyebrows in Miami as he made the comments about equal pay and numbers of sets. The No. 3 seed in the Sunshine State beat Alex De Minaur, 6-4 6-3, to secure his place in the last 16 of the tournament, but his comments have somewhat overshadowed his progress.
"I don’t want to be controversial or anything," Tsitsipas said. "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.
"Maybe they can also play best-of-five, I guess. For Grand Slams, best-of-five, I like it. On the other side, on the other hand, we would have seen much more variety when it comes to different Grand Slam winners if it was best-of-three, I believe.
"I very much believe that the winners of Grand Slams would be very different if the format was best-of-three in men."
Osaka, who beat Alison Riske, 6-3 6-4, to reach the quarter-finals on Monday evening, gave her response in a press conference and managed to smile about the comments while putting forward her views on the subject.
"Does he want to play nine sets? If he tries to extend mine, I'm going to extend his," Osaka said.
"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.
"I don't want to be rude. I'm really trying to structure this in a way that's not like off-putting, but I think it's like decades of hard work.
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"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 No. 1 player in the world, Iga [Swiatek], is like 20 right? I don't know. It's who people find interesting. Coco [Gauff] is amazing as well.
"For me, I feel like the revenue that you generate, like ticket sales, is very important, and I think the WTA is doing a really good job at that."
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