Former world number one Billie Jean King has called for an end to five-set matches for men at Grand Slams.

King, who won 12 Grand Slam titles including six at Wimbledon, said men’s matches could last too long.

The 74-year-old suggested women were willing to play five sets too but people wanted “quality over quantity”.

“You do not get paid in the entertainment business by how long you play for,” said King at the launch of the WTA Finals in Singapore.

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Longer matches and a packed schedule have been cited as a possible cause of the rise in serious injuries among some of the game’s stars with Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal, Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka all suffering serious injuries in the past 12 months.

“Everyone keeps saying women don’t want to play five sets but I don’t want the men playing five sets anymore – it takes too much out them,” said King, who founded the Women’s Tennis Association in 1973.

Since 2007, men and women have been paid the same prize money at Grand Slams – the only events, along with the Davis Cup, where men’s matches are best of five sets throughout – but women are paid significantly less at women-only events compared with similar-sized men’s events.

Novak Djokovic, the president of the ATP player council, has previously called for men to earn more than women, saying more people watch men’s tennis.

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British number three Cameron Norrie eased through the last qualifying round in Indian Wells with a straight-set win over Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky.

Norrie, the world number 111, won 6-4 6-2 at the BNP Paribas Open in one hour and 18 minutes.

He beat Spain’s world number 23 Roberto Bautista Agut on his Davis Cup debut last month but had never reached a Masters 1,000 event main draw before.

The 22-year-old faces Japan’s Taro Daniel in the first round on Friday.

The winner of that match will play 12-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic in round two.

Norrie dominated the game against against Stakhovsky with an excellent first serve and survived a break point in the final set to advance.

• Sharapova loses to Osaka in first round
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Former world number one Maria Sharapova fell 6-4 6-4 against Japanese number one Naomi Osaka in the first round at Indian Wells.

It is a second opening round loss in succession for the 30-year-old after she was knocked out of the Qatar Open last month.

Sharapova made six double faults, won only 25% of her second-serve points and had her serve broken five times.

Osaka, 20, the world number 44, wrapped up victory in 95 minutes.

“I wanted to do well here and not just because I won this event a couple times,” said Sharapova, who won the Indian Wells title in 2006 and 2013 but was unseeded for this year’s event, having dropped to 41 in the rankings.

“I would have loved to stay longer it is just not going to happen this year.”

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In the only night session match of the day, Osaka, who beat defending champion Angelique Kerber in the first round of last year’s US Open built a 3-0 lead in the first set.

Sharapova, who returned to the tour in April last year after a 15-month doping ban, fought back to 4-4 but then a double fault handed Osaka a set point which she took.

Osaka was 4-2 up in the next set before Sharapova recovered to 4-4 once more, only for another double fault at 4-5 to hand her opponent match point.

The Japanese player will face Polish world number 31 Agnieszka Radwanska in round two.

Sharapova reached the semi-finals of the Shenzhen Open in January and round three of the year’s first Grand Slam, the Australian Open, but lost in the opening round in Doha last month.

Analysis

BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller

Aside from winning her 36th career title in Tianjin in October, life has been a struggle for Sharapova since she returned from a doping ban last April.

A left arm problem is the latest in a succession of injuries which have held her back, and her lack of fluency was all too apparent against the powerful 20-year-old Osaka on a chilly night in Indian Wells.

Sharapova’s last win came in the second round of the Australian Open in January, and she remains outside the world’s top 40 – 10 months after returning to the tour.

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