‘Make it fair’
COINCIDING with the release of the new Battle Of The Sexes film – the big-screen dramatisation of the 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs – Heather Watson has questioned whether male players want to endure five-set matches at Grand Slam events rather than the three sets women play.
'I would be really interested to see the men’s point of view and whether they actually want to play to five sets,' said Watson in an interview with the Evening Standard this week.
'It changes the dynamic of the game a lot and I feel like more recently, because the weather conditions are really tough in some of these Grand Slams, like Australia and New York, it gets really hot and you see far more retirements in the matches.
'To play five sets in those conditions is so, so physically tough for them. I would love it to be fair and the same.
'Just like with on-court coaching — the women have on-court coaching, but the men don’t. I don’t like that. If the men aren’t allowed to have it, I don’t want it either. I just want it to be the same for both. I don’t know why it should be different.'
