Naomi Osaka fired back at Stefanos Tsitsipas who claimed women should play best-of-five sets at grand slams. Currently, the men must win three sets in order to emerge victorious in a grand slam match, whereas the women must win two.
While competing at the Miami Open, the Greek star said: “I don’t want to be controversial or anything. 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… Maybe they can also play best-of-five, I guess. For Grand Slams, best-of-five, I like it.”
Osaka, 24, who is also competing at the tournament in Florida and has made it to the semi-finals, responded to the world number five's suggestion by joking that the men should play nine sets. “Does he want to play nine sets? If he tries to extend mine, I'm going to extend his,” she said with a wry smile during a post-match press conference.
