"You'd see more upsets" - Jessica Pegula boldly asks men's tennis to move to Best-of-3 sets instead of forcing women's tennis to change to Best-of-5

Jessica Pegula suffered an unceremonious exit from 2025 Wimbledon earlier on Tuesday (July 1), going out in straight sets to Italy's Elisabetta Cocciaretto in the first round. Following her loss, the 30-year-old gave her views on the much-contested Best-of-5 vs Best-of-3 at the Majors debate.

Pegula had come into this year's grasscourt Major in fine form, having won her ninth career singles title at the Bad Homburg Open last week. Unfortunately, her title run at the WTA 500 tournament didn't serve her opening-round performance well as she succumbed 2-6, 3-6 to World No. 116 Cocciaretto in just over an hour.

Speaking to the media afterward, Jessica Pegula was asked to pick whether the format of men's and women's singles should both be structured around Best-of-3 sets or Best-of-5. In response, the World No. 3 opined that men's matches tend to last far too long relative to their female counterparts.

"Would I want to play three out of five? No. I think I would rather the men play two out of three! I don't think we all need to start playing three out of five," Jessica Pegula told the media after losing in Wimbledon 1R. "To me it's just too long, and I personally lose interest watching the matches. I think they're incredible matches and incredible physically and mentally, but I'm just like do we really need that?"

Pegula also argued that getting on top of Best-of-3 matches is harder than winning matches spanning five sets.

"I don't know, but it's just not my thing. I think it's harder to win two out of three than it is to win three out of five. Not physically, obviously, but I think it always is going to cater the better player in the long run if you're playing three out of five," she added. "So I think you'd see a lot more upsets of top players if men played two out of three in slams."

Pegula also shared why she prefers Best-of-3 matches

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Jessica Pegula on why she prefers Best-of-3: "I personally will not watch a full five-hour match"

Although there has long been support for women in pro tennis to rise up to the standard set by men and play Best-of-5 at Grand Slam tournaments, Jessica Pegula is against the idea as she believes that watching the entirety of a four, five-hours-long bout requires great attention span, which is on a downward trend, according to her.

"I don't know. Some people love it. I personally will not watch a full five-hour match. People can't even hold their attention long enough, they say these days with phones, how are they holding their attention for five hours?" Pegula said.

Despite her early-round defeat at Wimbledon, Pegula can take pride in her 2025 season, which has seen her make the climb back to her career-high ranking of 3 and win two singles titles.