"How dumb can you be?" - Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian blasted by fans for men's tennis take after Alcaraz-Sinner French Open epic

Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian recently criticized the best-of-five sets format for men's tennis at the Majors. According to Ohanian, the best-of-three sets format for women makes things more exciting for fans. The Reddit co-founder's take came in the wake of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner's five-set epic at the French Open. Subsequently, several tennis fans blatantly ridiculed Ohanian's opinion.

On Sunday, June 8, Alcaraz pulled off a Herculean effort as he came back from the brink of defeat to successfully defend his Roland Garros crown. The Spaniard registered a 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 7-6(2) win over World No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the men's singles final, with the match lasting five hours and 29 minutes; the longest French Open final of all time.

The very next day, Alexis Ohanian, who married women's tennis legend Serena Williams in 2017, shared a two-year-old post from a tennis enthusiast. Through the post, the enthusiast had opined that men's tennis will continue to be held in higher regard by fans as long as women keep playing best-of-three sets. Ohanian countered the take by writing:

"As someone who discovered tennis through the women’s game, I fell in love with the drama of every point mattering. When I finally watched a men’s match, I was confused. Five sets? It made the early games feel like warm-up acts instead of high-stakes battle. The tension was diluted, not heightened."

Many tennis fans on X later sided with the enthusiast and called out Ohanian. There were several who wondered how the 42-year-old could have such an opinion considering Alcaraz and Sinner's titanic clash a day before for the 2025 French Open men's singles title.

"This is possibly the most stupid tweet I’ve seen on this topic ever even before considering it contains a screenshot of a tweet that says keep reading the thread before jumping him," a fan wrote.

"Posting this the day after one of the most thrilling bo5 matches ever is insane," commented another.

"This is just crazy to say after Sunday. Non-watchers hear s**t is going five sets and they tune in! There is no better advertisement for the sport. One incredible final makes all the scheduling issues and player wear worth it," another fan chimed in.

"Alcaraz fought back from two sets down and beat sinner to win the French open. This will be one of the top 5 sports moments in 2025. Best of 3 just cant replicate that sort of warrior mentality," opined one.

"How dumb can you be... B05 is the best thing tennis has to offer. The ultimate test of mental and physical strength. No way to luck out. Also, every point still matters in B05. Any one point can influence the outcome of a match," another added.

"This just shows you haven’t watched much mens tennis. The beauty of the men’s game lies in the fact that it can seem like jt is about to end in 3 but the will power of the other person to not give up and fight leads to a different outcome. It highlights the human spirit to never give up. That anything is possible if you just keep showing up. There are very few rare women’s matches that you see that especially in the last 20 years," weighed in yet another fan.

One of the factors that has contributed immensely to women's matches not being played according to the best-of-five sets format is the perceived differences in the physical demands of tennis between men and women. Interestingly, Ohanian's legendary wife Serena Williams once suggested that men's and women's tennis are two completely different sports.

Serena Williams predicted crushing defeat for herself to highlight differences between men's and women's tennis

Serena Williams (Source: Getty)

In 2013, Serena Williams featured as a guest on an episode of Late Night hosted by David Letterman. Here, Williams discussed potentially playing Andy Murray, who at the time had established himself as one of the most dominant stars on the ATP Tour alongside Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

Claiming that Murray would easily beat her in a matter of minutes, Serena Williams said:

"For me, mens' tennis and womens' tennis are completely, almost, two separate sports. If I were to play Andy Murray, I would lose 6-0, 6-0 in five to six minutes, maybe 10 minutes. No, it's true. It's a completely different sport. The men are a lot faster and they serve harder, they hit harder, it's just a different game."

In the same year, Serena Williams had also expressed her openness to the idea of women playing best-of-five sets matches at Grand Slams.