Rajeev Ram, former doubles World No. 1, worried about the health of doubles play

BENGALURU: IN Flushing Meadows on September 11, a modern giant of men's tennis — in more ways than one — Rajeev Ram bowed out of the men's game. The former doubles World No. 1, the owner of six Major titles, announced his retirement from the professional game after serving it for the best part of 25 years.

On Monday, Ram was felicitated by the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA). The 42-year-old, who has a very close association with Bengaluru (father, Raghav, is from the city), in a select interaction spoke about why he's concerned about the future of doubles, among other things. Excerpts:

On the state of doubles play right now (prize money cuts, contracted draws) and whether he sees it as a threat to the existence of doubles

It's a little bit, yeah. It's obviously going to be after my time. But I wish that the ATP would do a little bit more to promote the doubles discipline. I think we have some amazing stories to be told. The team aspect of doubles, which lends itself to great stories, is untapped right now.

On how the US Open rebranded the mixed doubles (world's best singles player coming together and forming teams)

I really appreciated the innovation. I think it was really well done from the USTA and the US Open to take part of the product and put it in the limelight a little bit more. What I didn't think was great was that they took out the best doubles players in the world. For me, any time that I have been lucky enough to win a Grand Slam, the one thing that really stuck out is 'you feel like you beat the best'. And I don't feel like in this situation, the best (mixed doubles) players are playing the mixed doubles (the US athlete won four Slams in men's doubles and two in mixed doubles). So I think having it the first week, I think having all of the show and the star power is

fantastic. I just think if we could find a way to have all of the best players playing, I think it would make it really, really good.

On tennis potentially discouraging young doubles players because of the shrinking of the prize pool and it's historically been a restrictive sport in that only the top 100 players make money on a year-to-year basis

That's probably the worst thing. And it's not just doubles. I think that it's discouraging for any player to pursue a career in professional tennis. When I played singles for 13 years, a decent part of my income came from the doubles that I played. So, I think that it's not just for the doubles players that it's discouraging, I think it's for tennis in general. And I think it's too bad because it's such a

global sport; it's such a globally popular and successful sport, we should be doing the opposite.