Revive five-set games, demand former players

KARACHI: The tennis fraternity of the country has demanded the revival of five-set matches in national events in order to better the fitness level of players.
“In our times, semi-finals and finals used to be best-of-five games,” said former player Hameed-ul-Haq while talking to ‘The News’.
“Later this was changed, due to which our players are now facing fitness issues,” he said.
He added that this practice should be revived to boost the country’s tennis. “It would really help our players, especially for Davis Cup ties. Playing five sets provides you mental strength,” reasoned Hameed and stressed that all events should have best-of-five semi-finals and finals.
Former Davis Cupper Rashid Malik seconded Hameed’s stance by stating that this tradition helped the players a lot during the 1980s. “It helped us a lot in our times and bettered the standard of players. I got selected in the Davis Cup team after playing five-set matches in trials,” said Rashid.
He said the current management of Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) should revive this tradition in the best interest of the players. However, Yasir Khan, who also has been member of Davis Cup team, said this would not be much beneficial in the country’s environment. “Except Davis Cup and grand slams this tradition is not in practice. In fact the world is adopting best-of-three format and it is quite in vogue. No doubt, it is helpful, but we have to consider many other things before re-adopting this format,” said Yasir.
“First of all, we do not have enough courts to hold five-set events because they take time and players need rest between the sets. We have events of very few days on very few courts. Players would also need rest of at least one day after playing a five-set match,” said Yasir.
He was of the view that given the constraints, the idea would not prove much beneficial. “Though it is difficult to manage, the organisers can hold specific best-of-five events with heavy prize money,” suggested Yasir.
PTF secretary Khalid Rehmani told this scribe that they conducted Davis Cup trials on best-of-five format this year. “Pakistan tennis needs players who can play 10 sets a day. Then our tennis would start making impression at the international level,” said Khalid.
He said PTF would hold one event with this format before June at clay courts in Islamabad to test the endurance of players.