Novak Djokovic has proposed changing how tennis is scored, arguing that shorter matches would benefit the sport as it seeks to attract younger fans.
Djokovic said the sport should change the way it scores points, playing sets to four games instead of six and dropping the advantage rule, while keeping matches at best of five sets. He said this would keep matches to around two hours and called it best for everyone.
Why Djokovic wants change
One problem with tennis, Djokovic noted, is that matches have no fixed length and can run very long at a time when audiences increasingly expect immediacy. He said weeks ago that the average age of tennis fans was over 60 and that the sport needed to draw in younger people.
The four-game set format Djokovic described has already been used for some time at the Next Gen ATP Finals, the season-ending tournament for players under 20.
Career nearing its end
Djokovic, a Serbian player, has acknowledged his career is close to finishing. His legacy rests on his titles and records: no one has won more Grand Slam titles (24), spent more weeks as world number one (428), or captured more Masters 1000 titles.
The report noted Djokovic has also pushed for change through technology, which has eliminated line judges at almost every tournament, and supported the introduction of deciding-set tiebreaks so matches would not run indefinitely.
Next tournament
Djokovic has not played since Wimbledon, where he lost in the semifinals to Jannik Sinner. He has confirmed he will play the Cincinnati Masters 1000 event, a tournament he has not entered since 2023.
