Former doubles No.1 Rohan Bopanna has shared his opinion on what tennis needs to do to help push doubles in the right direction amidst a period of uncertainty.
Bopanna, 45, is still active on the ATP Tour and is partnering Croatia's Ivan Dodig for the 2025 doubles season.
The sport has been left in limbo following the US Open's controversial decision to move the mixed doubles event to the opening week of qualifying, adding new format changes.
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Whilst that move was heavily criticised by fans and players, including Australia's Ellen Perez, former singles world No.17 Reilly Opelka turned heads by replying to one fan on Instagram, writing, "Doubles is for failed singles players" and that tennis should get rid of it.
A bombardment of posts on social media later condemned Opelka's opinion, with Bopanna sharing a heartfelt message.
Speaking to Brett Phillips on Monday night's 'The First Serve Live' at Indian Wells, Bopanna revealed that his post was not directed at Opelka in particular.
"When I put out that post it was nothing related to anybody's comment, it was just from the bottom of my heart," said the 2024 Australian Open men's doubles champion.
"I was sitting at Dubai Airport and I literally had these thoughts, and I said 'OK, let me put it into words and just put it out there'."
He then touched on the importance of doubles success to inspire the next generation in his home country of India, a population of nearly 1.5 billion people, before offering an explanation on why the doubles game has remained stagnant over the years.
"We've always had some great doubles champions from India, the biggest country in the world. Look at the players who made it in the small elite success through doubles," he said. "Whoever has picked up a tennis racquet in these past few years, they all need inspiration, and inspiration comes from local athletes, local heroes.
"I really believe that doubles [has] a great product. I think we just need to go out of our comfort zone and really look at it differently. Treat it as not a byproduct of the current events like singles; yes it's the main event, and people are coming for that, but we need to actually take that chance.
"People don't really want to change, but if something is not working, I think everyone needs to come together and say let's take a chance, let's look at it differently. Maybe have three or four courts only for doubles.
Last month, Brazilian duo Marcelo Melo and Rafael Matos clinched the doubles title in Rio, cheered on by a passionate home crowd to demonstrate the potential of doubles tennis.
Bopanna made reference to the pairing to support his argument that it's the individual players who need to be marketed better.
"I've heard [people] say that the teams don't stick together, so it makes it tough to market, but I think the marketing comes from their respective countries, like with Marcelo or Matos," he said. "No matter who Marcelo plays with, he's going to have that fan following come from Brazil.
"That is what they need to see. It's not about marketing the teams, it's about marketing the product and then, hence, you will have more success and more people watching."
During Opelka's crazy rant, he mentioned that doubles players "don't sell a ticket" and "don't turn a profit".
However, a mature and level headed Bopanna understands that the sport is more than just dollar signs, which shouldn't be the determining factor.
"It's not about who's bringing in what revenue or who's not getting revenue, it's about the bigger picture is what impact is giving back to the sport," he stated.
"If we look at it purely on revenue, there are so many things that can be changed, it's not only take out doubles and that's going to make a difference.
"That's where I believe everyone needs to sit down and look at the product and how we can do something differently than say let's just cut this off.
When asked if talks have materialised in the background between the players and the ATP, Bopanna said: "The discussions have been going on for a long time, but no one is really making that change. There's no concrete change."
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