Jessica Pegula voiced her opinion that Wimbledon should contemplate adopting a three-set format for the men's competition after her straight-sets defeat at the hands of Elisabetta Cocciaretto, which made her the biggest name to exit the tournament so far.

Her comments reignite the long-standing discussion surrounding the differences between the men's and women's games at Grand Slams, which is defined by the number of sets. Pegula shared her views that playing best out of three is in fact "a lot harder" and more mentally taxing.

According to Pegula, three-setters place extra pressure to play precise and decisive from the off. She thinks that over three sets you often have little to zero room for error and have to be 100 per cent switched on the whole time. Furthermore, she is not a big fan of five-hour long encounters and would prefer a format change.

She stated: "100 percent 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 to the better player in the long run if you're playing three-out-of-five. I think you'd see a lot more upsets of top players if men played two-out-of-three in slams."

The American continued: "It's a lot harder when you don't have that much time. You get down one break, especially for the men, and you're like, Oh, gosh, I'm kind of done. I need some luck. I need someone to choke a little bit. There's a lot to needs to happen. I definitely think three-out-of-five you have way more time to turn around. You do. You have an extra set."

Pegula further argued that rather than women switching to best-of-five sets, it would be better if men played best-of-three, adding: "I would rather the men play two-out-of-three," and "I don't think we all need to start playing three-out-of-five."

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Referring to her own preferences, she stated: "For me it's too long. I personally lose interest watching the matches. I think they're incredible matches and incredible physically and mentally. I'm, like, Do we really need that? I don't know. I mean, some people love it."

She admitted her attention span wouldn't last through an extended match: "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? I don't know. Just not my thing."

Pegula also touched on the broadcasting aspect, saying: "I think it would be a lot easier for TV, for scheduling. I mean, TV's always talking about making everything faster and quicker, all of that stuff. So I don't see why. It's been such a staple for the men. I find it hard to believe they're ever going to change it.

"Maybe if they could also play three-out-of-five from the quarters on. I don't know. Something like that."

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