Novak Djokovic addresses need to attract younger fans to tennis

With each passing year, tennis continues to diminish in popularity. Some believe youngsters — who suffer from an increasingly shortened attention span — lack the patience to sit through a five-set match, and would rather watch alternative sports that deliver faster-paced and quicker action. 

World No. 2 Novak Djokovic has floated a radical rule change that could help tennis draw in younger viewers, especially at major tournaments.

After defeating Alexei Popyrin in the third round of Wimbledon on Sunday, Djokovic was asked whether major events should move away from the best-of-five format. The Serb said he was open to the initial few rounds of Wimbledon or the U.S. Open adopting the format change.

"I think they should stay best-of-five," Djokovic said. "The only thing that I'm maybe thinking it could be good to consider is the opening rounds that could go best-of-three, then you move into the hybrid of best-of-fives from the fourth rounds or quarters."

Tennis also faces the threat posed by the increasing popularity of padel tennis and pickleball, sports that take certain elements of tennis and make them more relatable to youngsters. The 24-time major champion warned the ITF/ATP to implement innovative solutions or risk losing more viewers.

"In terms of innovation in our sport, we have to figure out how to attract a young audience," Djokovic admitted. "Now we have the padel that is growing and emerging. People have fun with it and say, 'Yeah, but tennis is tennis. Tennis is the king or queen of racket sports.' That's true. But on a club level, tennis is endangered. If we don't do something about it, as I said, globally or collectively, padel, pickleball in [the] States, they're going to convert all the tennis clubs because it's just more economical."

Djokovic also urged authorities to do a better job marketing ATP Masters and other Tour events, citing the example of Formula 1 excelling in that endeavor across its events in a calendar year. 

Should the organizers heed Djokovic's advice? 

In the 1970s, three majors implemented the best-of-three format in the earlier rounds. The Australian Open got the ball rolling in 1973 and 1974, in which the first-round matches were best-of-three. The French Open enforced the format change for the first two rounds in 1973, 1974 and 1975. The U.S. Open tried it across three rounds in 1975, 1976 and 1978, and through the Round of 16 in 1977. 

The experiments flopped after players preferred a return to the best-of-five format. 

Currently, only men play best-of-five matches at majors and in the Davis Cup.