Wimbledon’s outdoor courts are packed with doubles matches in the middle of the opening weekend. Spectators with ground tickets, which at SW19 cost around £30, flock to these entertaining contests, drinking Pimm’s and watching tennis.If the ATP leadership has its way, doubles draws in Tour-level events will begin to decline in 2028, as will prize money for the two-man team event, which has already fallen to an 80-20 split in singles. The rumblings within the players’ community, read as singles players, intensified when some of them, despite ranking in the top-40, took home less prize money than the top-ranked doubles players at the end of the season.One of the biggest challenges facing men’s doubles is the growing separation from the singles game. The WTA Tour, which is not currently considering similar changes, has more crossover between the singles and doubles rankings. Five of the top-10 women in the doubles rankings — Taylor Townsend, Katerina Siniakova, Elise Mertens, Zhang Shuai and Jeļena Ostapenko — are also ranked high in singles. Among the men, in contrast, only four players from the ATP singles top-100 are also in the doubles top-100, they are Ben Shelton, Lorenzo Musetti, Lorenzo Sonego and Rinky Hijikata.It was a completely different set of players in two categories that had not been seen before the Bryan Brothers, the twins Mike and Bob Bryan, who started as doubles specialists. That’s exactly what the ATP shows are meant to prevent, players who primarily develop as doubles specialists from the start.The plan is to reduce the draw sizes, which currently stand at 16 for doubles and 28 for singles in ATP 250 events. At the 500 level, it is 16 for doubles and 32 for singles, while the Masters 1000 tournaments have 16 for doubles and 32 for singles. That would be down to eight teams in the ATP 250 and 500 events, and 16 teams at the Masters 1000 level.Along with this, the distribution of the prize money may move further to the singles, possibly moving to a 90-10 split, just a small change from what the Grand Slam tournaments are already operating.In 2028, the projected prize money for the double is likely to be around $60 million. The Tour does not seek to reduce overall spending, but to reallocate funds, amounting to $20 million that could potentially be redirected to early round singles payments in 2028.This could affect the Indians, who have nine players in the top-200 with only three in the top-100 and one, Yuki Bhambri, in the top-50.Earlier this week, the doubles players met with their representatives in the player’s council, Marcelo Arevalo and Andrea Vavassori, to discuss the scenario they are facing. Balaji, who is ranked 59th in the individual doubles rankings, told TOI, “If they make that change, half of us will not play tennis anymore. I will have to find another job.Indians did not have much luck in men’s doubles at Wimbledon on Thursday, US Open semi-finalists Yuki Bhambri and Michael Venus went down against Jean-Julien Rojer and Theodore Winegar, 3-6, 4-6. Earlier, Sriram Balaji and his Brazilian partner Marcelo Demoliner failed to capitalize on a strong start to down Sander Gille and Sem Verbeek, 6-3, 6-7 (2), 4-6.Alternates Anirudh Chandrasekar and Takeru Yuzuki of Japan went down to Ignacio Buse and Marco Trungelliti 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-7 (7).