Doubles players condemn ATP Tour’s plan to cut prize money and tournament sizes
LONDON: Doubles players fear for their tennis future after being told by the ATP Tour that prize money and tournament sizes will decrease significantly starting in 2028. A group of leading doubles players issued a statement Friday saying they are not “a carnival sideshow”, and that it will be impossible for anyone outside the top 30 in the ATP doubles rankings to make a living if the new proposals are adopted. The statement comes after doubles players met with ATP officials at Wimbledon this week to discuss the future of a format that is struggling to draw an audience. “The ATP is proposing to slash doubles draws, gut doubles prize money, and hand Challenger entry to singles players ahead of specialists who have built their careers in this discipline,” the players’ statement said. They said the proposal would give doubles players just 10 percent of the prize money at ATP tournaments — down from 20 percent — while halving the size of the doubles fields. At the premier Masters tournaments, that would cut the doubles draw to 16 teams, while at the smaller ATP 500 and 250 events it would consist of just eight teams. “Do the math on what that means for anyone outside the top 30: it will be impossible to make a living,” the statement added. “This is not a minor adjustment.