Tennis: Doubles players want a better deal

By TERRY MADDAFORD

David Adams has been around the professional circuit for more than a decade. Doing quite nicely thank you.

The South African has banked almost $US2.5 million but is no household name.

Why? He chooses to concentrate on doubles.

Pretty successfully too, collecting 18 titles and playing another 33 finals since turning professional 14 years ago. But, like others who shun singles, he finds doubles continually treated as the poor cousin of his sport.

Tournament promoters have long pushed singles as the drawcard. The prizemoney ratio backs that claim.

At this week's Heineken Open as an example, the singles winner will tomorrow afternoon pocket $US52,000. The doubles winners share just $US16,500 - the $US8,250 each less than the beaten singles quarter-finalists.

"As players, we accept that tournaments have gone through tough times," said 33-year-old Adams, who is a fan of the opera and has used his time around the court to learn seven languages.

"But it is difficult to accept when the prizemoney structure has seen the payout to doubles players cut by 30 per cent when they already only receive 20 per cent of the prizemoney pool.

"The ATP is run by businessmen looking for profits. They see singles as their core business but in reality it is not the top 40 [singles] players who bring in the crowds, it is the top 10.

"The doubles players have their part to play. We are not show business, not there as an exhibition, we are professional tennis players.

"The standard of the doubles tournament here is such that unless you are ranked among the top 40 you don't get in unless you are a player like Gustavo Kuerten or Andre Sa, who have used their singles ranking to play doubles.

"Almost all the doubles players here have reached at least the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam."

Adams stressed that doubles should not be viewed as a retirement programme.

"Sure, at 30-35 years you don't cover the court as quickly or have the aerobic fitness of a 25-year-old but doubles is more about strategy and skill.

"In downgrading doubles, I feel tournaments have taken a short-sighted view. Doubles bring diversity.

"I'm sure there are not many people who would want to sit and watch eight hours of singles with guys blasting away from the baseline.

"In a day and age when the focus is on money, doubles are a very important part of the game."

Sitting in the player's lounge, Adams maintained his peers don't look at players and pigeon-hole them as singles or doubles exponents.

Open tournament director and ATP board member Graham Pearce said there was no intention by the ATP to denigrate doubles but admitted that the singles game created the major interest.

"It is not so much of a problem in this part of the world. The doubles here and at the Australian Open attract more support than most other parts of the world.

"In Davis Cup, doubles are huge. The ATP also acknowledges they are an important part of the game but we have to make doubles more relevant and in turn increase interest."

The ATP contends, however, that while doubles players are an equal cost to any tournament, the interest such players create falls way short.

"It got to an extreme situation the year before last where some tournaments had to accommodate 32 singles players and another 32 who just played doubles," said Pearce. "That makes it very expensive.

"The debate is on-going. The ATP are keen to get a few more singles players playing doubles to increase interest. What we don't want is 17 or 18-year-olds seeing [playing doubles] as a cruisey life. Our feeling is you have to be a good tennis player first then be a doubles player.

"As we have seen here, players like Jan-Michael Gambill, Dominik Hrbaty and Kuerten, who are all top singles players also playing doubles. Normally, given their doubles rankings, they would not have got in. Now they can.

"That is something the ATP will try to encourage. Obviously if more singles players are playing doubles it is better for the tournament's finances.

"In the days when players like John McEnroe and Peter Fleming teamed up there was a lot of interest in doubles. We would like to get back to that."

As one attempt to make doubles more attractive, the ATP last year trialed a system where matches, once level at one-set all, went straight into a tiebreaker.

"It appeared to work well and I understand that mixed doubles at the Australian Open will again use that format this year."

The part doubles will play in future will, no doubt, spark on-going debate.

"It is not an issue that will go away," said Pearce. "Doubles will not disappear. Good doubles players will always get into tournaments."

But for Adams and the others who ply that trade what they want is a fair share of the pie.