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A group of 170 current and former doubles players have co-signed a letter to the ATP, calling on the governing body of men’s tennis to rethink proposals that would cut the size of doubles draws and shift roughly £15million ($20million) in prize money away from doubles and into singles. Former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash and Bob and Mike Bryan – aka the Bryan Brothers – are among the 33 doubles legends who urged the ATP to rethink plans. Seven Brits, including world No. 1 Henry Patten, are part of the 137 active players who also signed the letter.
Twenty national tennis federations endorsed the letter. However, Britain’s Lawn Tennis Association and the federations of the three other Grand Slam nations – Tennis Australia, the French Tennis Federation, and the United States Tennis Association – did not sign.
The open letter, released on Monday, October 26 and addressed to ATP board members and management, says: “The ATP exists to serve all professional players. Tennis is more than a business. It is a worldwide legacy built on joy, health and sportsmanship. A legacy like that should open doors, not close them.
“We, the undersigned current and former professional players and national tennis federations, are deeply concerned about the ATP’s plans to reduce doubles draws drastically on the ATP Tour. We support progress. We also understand the need to grow the sport, strengthen tournaments and increase commercial value. Still, the proposed reforms go much too far.
“The current plans would shift about US$20million in prize money from doubles to singles, while cutting a significant number of professional opportunities for doubles specialists. That shift would majke it much harder for talented players to build and sustain a doubles career. A healthy professional sport cnanot rely solely on a small group of top stars; it needs pathways for players to develop, compete and earn a living.”
The letter also urges the ATP to “find a better balance between commercial interests and its responsibility to all professional players and the sport’s legacy”, calling for collaboration on future plans and for more visibility for doubles. It also notes that doubles is often the entry to tennis for players as grassroots and club level.
It comes after the ATP shared plans in July to halve the size of doubles draws at tournaments and slash the allocation of prize money given to doubles events from 20 per cent to 10.
Days later, world No. 1 Patten publicly called out the men’s tour after winning Wimbledon alongside his partner, Harri Heliovaara. “It would be remiss of me not to mention that the ATP Tour submitted proposals to cut some of the doubles, and I'm a strong believer we are here to grow the game,” he said during his victory speech.
"This is a fantastic example of the joy that doubles can bring. The crowd - I hope you enjoyed it. I believe we should be growing opportunities in tennis for kids, whether they are doubles players, singles players, British, Finnish, from El Salvador or Croatia, wherever they are from, we should be growing the support instead of taking opportunities away.”
According to The Times, ‘crunch decisions’ will be made in the next four weeks, but doubles players have not currently discussed a strike.
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