After being presented with the men’s doubles trophy on Centre Court, Patten took time to defend doubles tennis after the men’s ATP Tour proposed significant changes earlier this month.
A group of leading doubles players accused the tour of trying to “end doubles as a viable profession”, after discussions were held around halving the size of future doubles draws and cutting prize money in order to allocate a greater share to singles players.
The proposals would mean only 16 teams competing at ATP 1000 events and eight at the smaller tournaments, while the percentage of prize money devoted to doubles players could fall from 20% to 10%.
“It would be remiss of me not to mention that the ATP Tour submitted proposals to cut some of the doubles, and I’m a strong believer we are here to grow the game,” said Patten, who is optimistic of holding constructive meetings with the ATP.
“This is a fantastic example of the joy that doubles can bring. The crowd – I hope you enjoyed it.
“I believe we should be growing opportunities in tennis for kids, whether they are doubles players, singles players, British, Finnish, from El Salvador or Croatia, wherever they are from, we should be growing the support instead of taking opportunities away.
“Thank you to Wimbledon for giving this platform to us for the two weeks, you are the best tournament in the world.”
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