LONDON (AP) — 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. It is a plan to end doubles as a viable profession, dressed up as a cost-saving measure — and it is being pushed through with almost no transparency and almost no consultation with the players whose careers and livelihoods are on the line.”

Asked about the statement, the ATP Tour said it was “assessing the doubles product, draw sizes and player compensation distribution with the aim of creating a more sustainable long-term model while maintaining doubles’ important role on the Tour.”

It added that changing the doubles model could help increase early-round singles prize money, “helping more players at the highest level to better meet the costs of competing on Tour and build sustainable professional careers.”

The proposal does not affect Grand Slam tournaments. At this year's Wimbledon, there are 64 doubles teams in both the men's and women's draw and winning pairs split 760,000 pounds (about $1 million), compared to 3.6 million pounds ($4.8 million) for the singles champions.

Doubles has always taken a back seat to singles tournaments when it comes to popularity and TV audiences, and the format has already faced several changes in recent years. In 2023, Wimbledon joined the other Grand Slam tournaments in shortening matches from five to three sets.

The U.S. Open last year introduced a new mixed doubles format that was played before the singles tournament started, in order to draw top names like Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Iga Swiatek and Naomi Osaka. That was criticized by traditional doubles players, however, as it largely excluded them in favor of attracting more famous singles specialists.

The women's doubles at Wimbledon received a boost with Serena and Venus Williams accepting a wild-card entry. However, their participation was still in doubt after Serena tweaked her knee during her first-round singles match in her first appearance at the All England Club in four years.

The men's players said part of the problem in attracting an audience was due to the ATP Tour's “lackluster marketing of doubles, failure to exploit broadcast and other commercial partnerships, and poor event staging and promotion.”

“Doubles is not an afterthought we fell into,” the players' statement said. “It has always been part of this sport’s identity, not a discount version of it.”

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