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What if we told you there was a new rule that would’ve completely changed the outcome of the 2020 Australian Open?

The ATP’s Next Gen Finals have experimented with rule changes in its short existence. One of the most intriguing is a total overhaul of the way matches are scored.

Under the experimental rules, games are played with No-Ad scoring. Then, only 4 games are needed to win a set, with a tiebreak at 3-all. And whoever wins three sets (out of 5) wins the match. The Next Gen Finals “designed the rule change to increase the number of pivotal moments in a match, without altering the number of games required to win a match from the traditional scoring format.”

This one rule change could make tennis even more exciting to watch, and has the ability to radically change the way the sport is played.

So let’s see how the results would change if we applied this new rule to the 2020 Australian Open.

This is Replay: a series where we look at the way numbers have shaped the game we love.

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