ATP Madrid Suspends Doubles Tournament in Response to Lawsuit Filed Against ATP Tour

The L.A. Times reported yesterday that the ATP Masters Series-Madrid is “suspending the doubles portion of their event” in reponse to a lawsuit filed on Sept. 1 by doubles players against the ATP. Mike and Bob Bryan, the winners of last year’s doubles tournament in Madrid, are part of the lawsuit. Tournament officials said the doubles competition scheduled for October 17-23 “would be canceled if there was no resolution to the lawsuit and planned on donating 50% of the prize money to the ATP players’ retirement plan.” According to the Bryans’ attorney, John Sullivan III, the move is “mind-boggling, especially on top of the fact we’ve been negotiating in good faith. ... It’s consistent with what we’re alleging.” But ATP Masters Series Madrid organizer Gerard Tsobanian stated: “We consider that the lawsuit filed by these 45 doubles players makes no sense and therefore it is not coherent for us to organize the doubles draw this year in Madrid with these same players while they are in the middle of a lawsuit against the ATP, of which we are members.”

After Wimbledon, the ATP announced fundamental changes to the rules concerning how players qualify for doubles tournaments. Under the new rules, doubles players will be required to qualify for the singles tournament before being eligible to compete in doubles tournaments, regardless of how successful they have been in doubles tournaments. However, because of the special requirements to excel at the highest level of doubles, most of the top doubles players do not play the singles events and thus lack the necessary experience in singles play. The players claim the ATP, controlled by self-interested tournament directors, have unfairly changed the system to favor singles players over doubles players, upsetting long traditions in the sport and completely divorcing entry requirements from past competitive success in doubles. The players were surprised to say the least about the announcement, especially given that the Players' Council (comprised of mostly singles players and a few doubles players) voted 8-0 against the reform. According to Mike Bryan, "the players voted against it and the tournaments passed it anyway, so it's a pretty corrupt system."

The ATP governs the professional tennis tour and was formed to, among other things, "promote and protect the future of the sport of professional tennis" and to give tour players a voice in their sport. The lawsuit claims that the ATP's efforts to purportedly "enhance" doubles is in fact a concerted effort by tournament directors to run the best doubles players out of the game and turn the doubles circuit into nothing more than an exhibition marketing tool for tournament directors to promote their singles tournaments. The lawsuit also alleges that the ATP's directors have violated their fiduciary obligations to the players by enacting rules that prevent doubles players from competing, contrary to the express wishes of the players.

This is a very unique case and it will be interesting to see how it unfolds.

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