{"id":777807,"date":"2026-07-22T12:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T12:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/777807\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T12:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T12:21:10","slug":"after-wimbledon-showcase-the-future-of-doubles-in-mens-tennis-is-on-the-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/777807\/","title":{"rendered":"After Wimbledon showcase, the future of doubles in men\u2019s tennis is on the line"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE ALL ENGLAND CLUB, London \u2014 Standing on Centre Court at Wimbledon<\/a> after winning a second men\u2019s doubles title in three years, British tennis player Henry Patten had something to tell the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ATP submitted proposals to maybe cut some of the doubles,\u201d Patten, 30, said after he and partner Harri Heli\u00f6vaara had defeated Croatia\u2019s Mate Pavi\u0107 and El Salvador\u2019s Marcelo Ar\u00e9valo.<\/p>\n

He got to add, \u201cI am a strong believer that we are here to grow the game. I think this is a fantastic example\u2026\u201d before the crowd interrupted and cheered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a fantastic example of the joy doubles can bring. I believe that we should be growing opportunities in tennis for kids, whether they\u2019re doubles players, singles players, from the UK, from Finland, from Croatia, from El Salvador. We should be growing the sport rather than taking opportunities away,\u201d Patten said.<\/p>\n

Patten\u2019s words followed a fortnight of turmoil on the men\u2019s doubles tour. At the start of Wimbledon, doubles players met with the ATP Player Council to discuss proposals first discussed in May. They would halve the size of doubles draws at tour events and redistribute prize money from doubles to singles. At most ATP Tour events, the total prize pool is 80 percent singles, 20 percent doubles; under the new proposals, which are slated for 2028, that would become 90 percent singles, 10 percent doubles.<\/p>\n

Draws would also shrink from 32 pairs at ATP Masters 1000 events (the rung below the Grand Slams) to 16, and from 16 to eight at ATP 500 and 250 events, the other two categories of tournament on the main tour outside the Grand Slams.<\/p>\n

What’s the longest rally in tennis history?<\/p>\n

Tifo Sports<\/p>\n

The consequences, top doubles players said in a joint statement at the end of the first week of Wimbledon, would include making doubles an unviable career for pairs outside the top 30 \u2014 as well as shrinking job opportunities in the wider tennis ecosystem, for coaches, trainers, fitness professionals and other members of players\u2019 teams who would eventually no longer have a player to work with. The proposals would not impact Grand Slam doubles events.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoubles isn\u2019t a carnival sideshow,\u201d the players said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is one of the most successful parts of tennis \u2014 integral to the amateur game \u2014 with the potential to do so much more.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet the impact of the ATP\u2019s proposals will be to diminish the sporting excellence that is professional doubles and turn off the pipeline of pro doubles players and the entire infrastructure that supports them.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoubles is not an afterthought we fell into. It has always been part of this sport\u2019s identity, not a discount version of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, the ATP Tour said: \u201cWe are assessing the doubles product, draw sizes and player compensation distribution with the aim of creating a more sustainable long-term model while maintaining doubles\u2019 important role on the Tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe review is also assessing whether changes to the doubles model could enable increased investment in early-round singles prize money, helping more players at the highest level to better meet the costs of competing on Tour and build sustainable professional careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny potential changes will be developed through close consultation with players, tournaments and the ATP Board, with any decisions made in the best long-term interests of the sport and its consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a roundtable earlier in the tournament, Patten, who with Heli\u00f6vaara is joint world No. 1, described the proposals as \u201cshocking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of my career, maybe I would play to 2028, a couple of years past it, if things remained the same, so it won\u2019t really affect me that much,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what it will affect is the number of people that are able to make a living out of tennis. It will reduce that number, and redistribute the funds to people who are already doing well in tennis. So I find that a shocking decision to make tennis a more elitist sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what their endgame is. The level of doubles will go down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Harri<\/p>\n

\n Harri Heli\u00f6vaara (left) and Henry Patten won the season-ending ATP Tour Finals in 2025. (Valerio Pennicino \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In 2024, the ATP introduced changes to doubles events designed to encourage more singles vs. doubles matchups, allowing more pairs of singles players to use their singles rankings to enter and making the entry deadline later than it had been previously. At the tour\u2019s flagship ATP Masters 1000 events, all but two of which now last 12 days, rather than seven, doubles matches on outside courts are key to offering fans who buy grounds passes value in the second week, because they would otherwise have little or no tennis to watch.<\/p>\n

Tickets are rarely bought for doubles specifically, and the compelling singles vs. doubles matchups \u2014 or just singles stars playing doubles on top of singles \u2014 do not happen with any frequency. But grounds passes are also rarely bought for any kind of tennis specifically \u2014 the experience of watching tennis, whatever kind it may be, is the point.<\/p>\n

Singles players routinely withdraw from exciting doubles pairings if one or both of them do well in their main discipline, creating large holes in doubles draws. The increasingly physical nature of singles competition only adds to this, and stops leading singles players from prioritizing, or even considering doubles as a viable part of their careers. High-profile matchups, like Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal being given a lesson in court geometry by Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek<\/a> at the 2024 Paris Olympics, do capture the imagination, but they are vanishingly rare even at the biggest events and essentially impossible to manufacture on the ATP Tour.<\/p>\n

For the doubles players who issued a statement against the proposals, there is an additional problem. The statement referenced \u201clackluster marketing of doubles, failure to exploit broadcast and other commercial partnerships, and poor event staging and promotion.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the roundtable at Wimbledon, Patten described the ATP\u2019s marketing as \u201cshambolic.\u201d Tennis TV, the ATP-Media operated streaming platform, did not post about the men\u2019s doubles final at Wimbledon on its Instagram grid. The official ATP Tour Instagram account made three posts about Patten and Heli\u00f6vaara\u2019s win.<\/p>\n

At Wimbledon, tennis fans who watched doubles said that men\u2019s doubles is crucial to the ecosystem, and also more relatable to recreational tennis players and fans, with doubles a common discipline at clubs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at club level, most people play doubles,\u201d Lenny Cornwall said during an interview. \u201cI want to be able to see good doubles so I can learn.\u201d Other fans disagreed, describing doubles as \u201cnot functional.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Wimbledon \u2014 and the other three majors \u2014 act as showcases for doubles, this is largely due to the huge amounts of spillover attendance generated by the size of the tournaments that even the biggest ATP events, cannot match.<\/p>\n

The next ATP Masters 1000 event is the Canadian Open, which starts August 2 in Montreal. In last year\u2019s doubles event, rising singles stars Ben Shelton and Arthur Fils paired up. They defeated top doubles players Hugo Nys and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, before withdrawing from their quarterfinal against Kevin Krawietz and Tim P\u00fctz because Shelton had reached the quarterfinals in singles. He ultimately won the tournament, and over $1.1 million dollars. Doubles champions Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool split just over $457,000.<\/p>\n

For Patten and other doubles players, the proposals remain proposals. He is\u00a0optimistic meetings with the ATP will bring discussion about how to move doubles forward. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t happened yet,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE ALL ENGLAND CLUB, London \u2014 Standing on Centre Court at Wimbledon after winning a second men\u2019s doubles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[690,99,1794,428],"class_list":["post-777807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-culture","tag-sports","tag-sports-business","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}