‘It’s the bedrock’: doubles fights for attention amid tournament squeeze

For the first time since he earned the distinction, the No 1 men’s tennis player in the world returned to home soil at Queen’s Club to compete not too far from where he grew up. Joe Salisbury has won four grand slam titles overall and has occupied the top ranking for 12 weeks and counting. As the second youngest person inside the top 25, at 30 years old he is only just beginning.

But all those milestones were achieved in doubles, so instead of being scheduled on the Centre Court for a big homecoming, he occupied the much smaller second court where he and his partner, Rajeev Ram, lost quietly in their second match. In recent years, Great Britain has become one of the most successful men’s doubles nations in the world, with four players in the top 40. If this country struggles to provide a platform on the biggest stages for doubles, there are few other places that can.

Whether doubles should, can or will ever receive sufficient attention is such a common theme that, during the early stages of Eastbourne last week, it was referenced out of the blue by Judy Murray: “Don’t tell me there’s no appetite for doubles in Great Britain,” she wrote on Twitter, retweeting a photo of a doubles match on an outside court filled with spectators. “Doubles is the bedrock of club and school competition. Of course we want to see doubles.”

Many supporters of doubles argue with similar logic, pointing out the potential of the discipline if the sport could tap into its popularity at club level: “If you look at a lot of tennis fans, when they play tennis they play doubles,” says the world No 40 Lloyd Glasspool, a fast-rising British doubles player who, alongside his partner, Harri Heliövaara, upset Salisbury and Ram that day.

Doubles is