Doubles players revolted against tennis chiefs with a legal threat after an attempt to cut back on their numbers at events following Wimbledon.
The plot to tighten qualification criteria has now been shelved amid furious warnings from at least 49 players who signed a fiercely-critical letter. The ATP was forced into a U-turn after players alleged amendments amounted to an “unlawful boycott” and “exclusion”.
Effectively, the proposed new rule would have reduced the number of places available to specialist doubles players at tournaments in Hamburg, Gstaad, Newport, Bastad and Kitzbuhel.
Telegraph Sport reported in March how the ATP planned to get more singles players involved to increase the commercial appeal of doubles competitions.
However, the ATP has withdrawn the plan after more than half of the world’s top 20 doubles players joined the complaint to the men’s professional tour. It is suggested the main reason for the climbdown was that the tour concluded that they did not give players sufficient notice.
One top-50 player, who asked to remain anonymous, said of the move: “It’s a threat to the whole doubles ecosystem. They effectively want to cut jobs for doubles players.
“It’s all very well saying ‘it’s just a trial, it might never happen’, but would anyone be happy if their employer said they wanted to give them ‘a trial redundancy’?”
According to the letter of complaint seen by Telegraph Sport, the ATP had intended “to limit one side of the doubles draw to players who rely on their singles ranking to qualify, such that only seven or eight teams can qualify using doubles rankings, and six teams can qualify using singles rankings”.
“Doubles teams that would usually qualify… will no longer be eligible to compete unless the doubles spots reserved for players reliant on singles rankings do not get filled,” the letter says.
The reintroduction of entry restrictions later in the season remains a possibility, which the playing group believe “may destroy the ability of a number of doubles players to continue to earn a living from their sport”.
Jamie Murray, ranked No 25 in doubles, is understood not to have signed the letter to the tour. Earlier this year, former world No 1 Murray spoke of a creeping crisis for doubles. “Right now, it feels to me that [doubles] is kind of set up for failure,” Murray said. “No one, from a Tour perspective, seems to be thinking of making it a more valuable proposition.”
The players who signed the letter of complaint wrote: “This unlawful deprivation of the opportunity to earn rankings points and prize money will have flow-on consequences throughout the year.
“Moreover, a continuation of [the restrictions] throughout the year and beyond would present an existential threat to the entire game of doubles inconsistent with the obligations owed by the ATP to its player members. We look forward to the removal of the new entry restrictions prior to the applicable tournament entry deadline for each of the tournaments. If the restrictions are not removed, the players concerned will explore their legal options.”
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