The ATP Tour wants to slash doubles prize money and cut field sizes. Will it chase away the best talent from tennis’s most collaborative format?<\/p>\n
That question dominated professional tennis this week as Bob and Mike Bryan, the sport’s most decorated doubles pair, spoke out against the proposal. The identical twins, recently inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, made their objections clear before competing in Wimbledon’s invitational doubles event.<\/p>\n
The ATP’s plan would cut doubles prize money in half. Starting in 2028, doubles competitors would get just 10% of tournament prize money, down from 20% today. The proposal also cuts doubles field sizes in half.<\/p>\n
It’s a fundamental devaluation of doubles in professional tennis. Fewer spots. Less money. The signal to aspiring doubles specialists is clear\u2014and the Bryans, who built their careers fighting for the format’s place in the sport, aren’t staying quiet about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The ATP Tour’s proposal to slash doubles prize money and field sizes has drawn sharp criticism from Bob and Mike Bryan, the legendary identical twins who were recently inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atp-tour","category-tennis"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n