The shortened attention spans of tennis fans in a "fast-moving, time-starved world" provides a "new reason for fresh look at five-set matches," according to Liz Clarke of the WASHINGTON POST. WTT Washington Kastles Majority Owner and league Chair Mark Ein wonders if there is a "place in the current sports marketplace for four-and-a-half-hour events." Former USTA CEO Arlen Kantarian said, "There have been years of debate. A lot of sports are looking to speed up play given the shorter attention spans. But for tennis, you don’t want to lose one of the defining challenges of winning a Slam." ATP/WTA Miami Open Dir James Blake said the "biggest factor" regarding the topic is "the fan." He said, "A fan sitting through a five-hour match -- it just doesn’t happen anymore. Look at the Australian Open or U.S. Open, where it can be really hot. That’s a lot to ask for fans. Even watching from the sofa, that’s a lot to sit through. And it’s difficult for broadcasters to sell sponsorships." Int'l Tennis HOF CEO Todd Martin favors "keeping best-of-five-set matches but questions the necessity of six-game sets." Clarke noted four-game sets is a "component of a new format called 'Fast4' that was introduced in Australia at the 2017 Hopman Cup." The purpose of Fast4 is to "make matches quicker and more exciting via four significant tweaks: abandoning 'lets,' abandoning “ad” points, awarding games to the first player to score four points, and awarding sets to first to win four games." Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley said that he is "unaware of any desire to shorten the format for men." He "shared data compiled by Tennis Australia that don’t indicate a problem with overly long matches." The data shows that the "average time of men’s matches" at the '13 Australian Open was 2 hours 31 minutes. In '18, it "was 2 hours 35 minutes." In roughly that same span, attendance at the Australian Open "has increased each year," from 643,280 in '14 to 743,667 this past January. Tennis "prizes tradition," and the sport "has been slow to embrace change, in many respects, as a result" (WASHINGTON POST, 6/3).
