Wimbledon’s outdoor courts are full of doubles matches in the middle of the opening week. Spectators with ground tickets, which at SW19 cost around £30, flock to these fun contests, drink Pimm’s and watch the tennis.If ATP leadership has its way, doubles draws at Tour-level events will begin to shrink in 2028, as will prize money for the two-man team event, which has already reached an 80-20 split with singles. Rumblings in the players’ community, read as the singles players, became louder when some of them, despite being ranked 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 its 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 highly ranked in singles. Among the men, by 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’s a completely different set of players in both categories not seen before the Bryan brothers, twins Mike and Bob Bryan, who started as doubles specialists. This is precisely what the ATP seems intent on curbing, players who develop primarily as doubles specialists from the start.The plan is to reduce the draw sizes, which currently are 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 feature 16 for doubles and 32 for singles. That could be reduced to eight teams in ATP 250 and 500 events, and 16 teams at the Masters 1000 level.In addition to this, the distribution of prize money could shift further towards singles, potentially moving to a 90-10 split, only a marginal change from what the Grand Slam tournaments already operate.For 2028, the projected prize money for doubles is likely to be around $60 million. The Tour does not aim to reduce overall spending, but rather to reallocate funds, with a maximum of $20 million potentially redirected towards singles payments in the first round in 2028.This has perhaps an Indian impact, who have nine players in the top-200 of which only three are in the top-100 and one, Yuki Bhambri, in the top-50.Earlier this week, the doubles players met with their representatives in the players’ council, Marcelo Arevalo and Andrea Vavassori, to discuss the scenario they are facing. Balaji, ranked 59 in the individual doubles rankings, told TOI: “If they make that change, half of us will not play tennis anymore. I have to find another job. If they reduce the draw to eight, of which there will be two wildcards, what will be left?”Indians had little luck in the men’s doubles at Wimbledon on Thursday, US Open semi-finalists Yuki Bhambri and Michael Venus going down to alternates Jean-Julien Rojer and Theodore Winegar 3-6, 4-6. Earlier, Sriram Balaji and fellow Brazilian Marcelo Demoliner failed to capitalize on a strong start to go down 6-3, 6-7(2), 4-6 to Sander Gille and Sem Verbeek.Alternates Anirudh Chandrasekar and Takeru Yuzuki of Japan went down to Ignacio Buse and Marco Trungelliti 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-7(7).