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I felt a little sorry for the poor suckers in the crowd last night who paid good money to watch the sublime Serena dismantle Safina 6-0. 6-3 in the championship match of the Australian Open. It probably took everyone present about twice as long to take the tram to Rod Laver arena, buy a coldie and find their seat as it did to sit through the match (including the awards presentation.)

About twenty minutes into the match (roughly when the second set was starting) an idea floated through my tennis-crazed mind: The women should play best-of-five finals at the Majors.

The final result probably would have been the same if the ladies had played another set, but at least 1. the match would have lasted as long as an episode of Desperate Housewives and 2. Dinara would have had a few more pokes at Serena’s ironclad game.

I’m not pushing for pure equality between the men and women – the way things are trending on both tours, the guys will start playing best of three in the majors before the women go the distance (perish the thought!!!). But I do think that this one change could make a positive difference in how the women’s finals unfold.

What do you think? Would my big idea make the finals more competitive or just more humiliating for the loser?