Jamie Murray makes ominous prediction about doubles tennis

Jamie Murray is an accomplished doubles tennis player. He has 37 career titles (32 in men's doubles, 5 in mixed doubles). Two of the men's doubles titles are Grand Slams, and all five of the mixed doubles are Grand Slams.

He recently spoke out about the state of doubles tennis, and his comments were ominous. The 38-year-old thinks the quality of doubles is going "down". Murray believes that if that trend continues, doubles could be eliminated.

The good news is that Murray has ideas as to how to elevate and improve the doubles competition, and he said it would not cost much if any money. He has documented his ideas and shared them presumably with the ATP.

Is Jamie Murray correct?

Murray is right. Doubles are becoming an afterthought. The era of the Bryan brothers and others who are doubles specialists is passing by. For better or worse, singles players are playing doubles in tournaments to maximize their opportunities to compete and win prize money and points.

The problem with singles players focusing on doubles is that they may be inclined to withdraw from doubles if they advance far in singles and doubles in a tournament. The schedule can become increasingly demanding as the tournament wears on. That means singles players are taking draw spots from dedicated doubles players at the start of the tournament but may not finish the tournament in doubles. That is a lost opportunity for a dedicated doubles player to compete.

Jordan Thompson's schedule in Los Cabos is a recent example of how hard it is for singles players to compete in both in the late stages of a tournament. He played a singles final, doubles semifinal, and doubles final in seven hours starting at 9 PM. He won both the singles and doubles titles which is not the norm.

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