Madrid Open chief Gerard Tsobanian says doubles events must evolve (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
MADRID — The debate surrounding doubles is growing in intensity. While Salvadoran Marcelo Arévalo has criticized those who disparage the format, the head of the Madrid Masters 1000 Gerard Tsobanian sees things differently: doubles tournaments must be reformed because they cost an unjustifiable amount of money.
“Doubles don’t sell enough to justify the cost they represent for a tournament,” Tsobanian, president and CEO of the Spanish tournament, told RG and CLAY in an interview.
“Unfortunately, in tennis tournaments, doubles don’t sell enough to justify the cost they represent for a tournament. I would like every singles player to also play doubles. Or that every doubles player be required to have a certain singles ranking,” added the Frenchman.
Tsobanian believes the doubles tournament cannot settle for specialists alone. The way to attract spectators and justify the event’s cost, he says, is to bring in “top-level players.”
“An endless debate,” he adds with some frustration.
The total prize money for the latest edition of the Madrid tournament was €8,055,385. The winner of the singles tournament, Norway’s Casper Ruud, took home €985,030. The doubles champions, Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos and Spain’s Marcel Granollers, shared €400,560. Tsobanian argues that doubles does not justify its cost compared to what singles generates. And he leaves open the question: how many tickets are bought to see a doubles player?
Doubles, an essential and historic part of tennis, no longer features the best-known players. While in the 1980s a star like John McEnroe formed one of the world’s top duos with Peter Fleming, that was the exception. The best players have largely not followed the example of greats from the 1950s and ’60s, who played doubles with as much consistency and enthusiasm as singles.
For the “Big Three” — Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer — doubles was a rarity, although Federer and Nadal won Olympic gold in the event in 2008 and 2016, respectively. Today, stars like Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz also place little emphasis on doubles.
The tradition of doubles in women’s tennis held strong until more recently, with legends like Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Martina Hingis and the Williams sisters frequently competing. But in recent years, top women have also distanced themselves from the discipline.
On Calendar Reform and Latin American Expansion
A seasoned observer of the tour, Tsobanian acknowledges the debate over how to structure the men’s calendar is also “endless.” But he opposes transforming the circuit into a space solely for elite players. In that sense, he diverges from his mentor, Romanian Ion Tiriac, who has long advocated for a Formula 1-style structure — only the best players competing each week.
“I don’t see it. Cancel the 250s and only have 500s and Masters 1000s to create a top league like they want to do right now? The question is whether the players want it, and I don’t think they do, because they want to have the chance to play in smaller tournaments. Djokovic, for example, played and won the ATP 250 in Geneva before Roland Garros.”
“It’s true that there are a lot of 250s, but that’s also the strength of tennis. It’s a worldwide, global sport. There’s a tournament every week somewhere in the world. We take the sport to all parts of the world, combining men and women in the same event — something not many sports do. Tennis is a complete product. It’s unique, it’s privileged, and we have to preserve that.”
Tsobanian also addressed Latin America’s long-standing ambition to host a major tournament, specifically a Masters 1000. American Butch Buchholz, the creator of the Key Biscayne tournament, pursued the idea in the late 1990s when the format was still called Super 9. Tiriac also considered the possibility.
“South America has a long tradition of important tennis, with great players. There were discussions about bringing a Masters 1000 to Buenos Aires, and I was involved in discussions with Tiriac and the people interested. They told us about what a great place Buenos Aires was to host a Masters 1000.”
When was that? “Less than ten years ago, before Tiriac sold the tournament [from Madrid to IMG].”
The idea, Tsobanian believes, makes sense. But there’s one major obstacle.
“The problem is economic. While in the Middle East it’s more of an audience problem, in Latin America it would be more of an economic problem than an audience problem.”
Sebastián Fest
Journalist. Founder of CLAY, a global tennis media platform. More than 70 Grand Slams covered during a 35-year journalistic career. He is the former Sports Editor of the German news agency DPA and the Argentine newspaper La Nación. He has reported on every FIFA World Cup since 1998 and every Olympic Games since 1996.
He is the author of 'Ni rey ni dios' and 'Messiánico', biographies of Lionel Messi, and 'Sin red', a decade-long journey following Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, as well as 'Gracias', a biography of Nadal.
Correspondent for Spanish newspaper El Mundo in South America, he co-chaired the International Tennis Writers Association (ITWA), an organization that gathers the 100 most influential tennis journalists in the world, and is currently a board member. He was also Editor-in-Chief of Around the Rings, a site focused on high-level sports politics.
