'ISSUE IS NOT GOING AWAY': EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH AUSSIE LEGEND PAUL MCNAMEE

Paul McNamee (left) celebrates his Wimbledon doubles title alongside the late Peter McNamara (right). (Getty)

Not too many people are fortunate enough to call themselves a Wimbledon champion, but Australian great Paul McNamee will forever have his name etched in the history books.

Born in Melbourne, McNamee won four Grand Slam doubles trophies (Australian Open 1979, 1983) and Wimbledon (1980, 1982), on his way to claiming the No.1 ranking. He also partnered Martina Navratilova to win the mixed doubles title at the All England Club in 1985.

A two-time Davis Cup champion and former singles semi-finalist at his home major, the 70-year-old has firmly established himself as one of Australia's greats.

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The First Serve Live spoke exclusively with McNamee in London to discuss a range of hot topics, including the age-old five-set debate.

"I love five-set matches, but the issue's not going away. People's attention span, TV... time's precious," he said.

"The best compromise is four sets and a fifth-set super tiebreak. You’ve still got a five-set score, but you’ve knocked an hour off the match."

Moments after her first-round exit at Wimbledon, world No.3 Jessica Pegula caused quite a stir when asked if she would like to play best-of-five sets.

"If they played best of three sets, we would see more surprises. I would prefer them to play best of three sets, never us to play five. It's too long; I lose interest in tennis when it's best of five sets. I would never spend five hours watching a whole match," the American told reporters.

"They say nowadays people can't keep their attention on anything. How do they manage to follow those matches?"

McNamee added: "It brings equality too… the women could play four sets instead of three, the men four instead of five, and hey, we've got equality.

"At the 250 level, I proposed two sets and a match tiebreak, no-ad scoring… you're guaranteed a two-hour format, which tennis doesn't have."

The US Open also created a storm when they announced that the top singles players would be paired up together for the new mixed doubles format at the expense of most doubles specialists.

Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Świątek are just some of the star-studded names selected to feature.

"Good luck getting into doubles at the US Open. In the mixed doubles? Good luck," said McNamee.

"The mixed doubles at the US Open, as an event, fantastic. But please… don't hand out a Grand Slam title when the best doubles players in the world aren't allowed to play. That lacks integrity.

"The worst thing you can do to doubles is schedule it after a huge singles final when three-quarters of the stadium empties out. Put it before the singles, with the right format — no-ad, two sets and a tiebreak — it fits beautifully.

"We didn't do the doubles sign-in until after first-round singles… half the field loses, so they stay and play doubles. It works."

McNamee later shared why he appreciates the current crop of Australian players "more than ever".

Listen to the full interview below:

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