On 15 October 2026, ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi published an open letter setting out proposals for the men’s tour from 2028. The package covers four linked areas: player compensation, the ranking system, the calendar, and competition formats including doubles. The ATP estimates it would lift total player compensation, excluding the Grand Slams, to $350 million a year.
None of it is final. The ATP is aiming to bring a finished package to its year-end meetings in Turin in November, and doubles players have already asked it to think again. This explainer sets out what the letter proposes, what it leaves open and where the argument stands.
The Three Principles
The letter rests the proposals on three ideas. Rewards should follow where fans engage most, so that more players share in the sport’s growth. The structure should reduce the pressure on players to overplay. And players should be drawn to the biggest events by reward rather than required to play them, which the letter summarizes as “incentive, not obligation.”
Player Compensation
Three central payments would take the ATP’s annual central investment in players past $100 million from 2028, on top of on-site prize money and tournament profit-sharing:
- A bigger Bonus Pool. The pool would rise from $21.5 million to $50 million, rewarding players who commit to the tour’s biggest events. GTN’s Bonus Pool explainer sets out how the current pool is shared and what skipping a Masters 1000 costs.
- A top-250 payment. A year-end rankings bonus for players who finish in the top 250 of the singles rankings, worth $25 million in total, described as career support to help players meet the cost of competing.
- Pensions. An annual contribution of about $30 million to pension and retirement benefits for 300 players a year.
For scale, the ATP has put tour-level player compensation in 2025 at roughly $270 million, and about $400 million with the Grand Slams included.
Rankings
The letter proposes that results at the biggest events carry more weight across the season, and that the system reduce the incentive for a player to add tournaments after a disappointing result. It gives no point values, no formula and no list of which results would count.
The Calendar
The calendar would move toward a clearer season structure with dedicated weeks for each tournament category, so that players can plan their seasons and adjust as they go. Players would remain free to enter events across the whole tour. The tenth Masters 1000, in Saudi Arabia, which the ATP had already announced, is part of the same plan; GTN’s Masters 1000 explainer covers the current nine events.
Doubles
The fourth area is the one that has drawn a public response. The ATP says it is reviewing the long-term structure of its competition formats, including potential adjustments to doubles draws, with the stated aim of making doubles more sustainable. The letter adds that “any prize money reallocated from doubles would remain dedicated to player compensation,” and that it is expected to go into singles qualifying and early-round prize money. The letter itself gives no draw sizes, formats or dollar figures.
The options under discussion include halving the doubles field at Masters 1000 events from 32 teams to 16, with smaller fields at events below that level. [UNVERIFIED: 32-to-16 Masters 1000 doubles figure and smaller lower-tier fields; Reuters, 27 October 2026; not in the ATP letter or any ATP release found]
On 27 October, a letter to the ATP board and management signed by 137 active players, 33 former players and 20 national federations asked the tour to reconsider. The signatories said they accepted the need for reform but were deeply concerned by the plans, which they said would move about $20 million in prize money from doubles to singles and make it “much harder for talented players to build and sustain a doubles career.” The ATP had said earlier in the month that doubles would remain a core part of the tour and that its review was aimed at finding a sustainable long-term model.
How doubles works now, from scoring to the separate team rankings that decide Turin, is covered in GTN’s guides to how tennis doubles works and ATP doubles team rankings.
Who Decides, and When
The ATP says it will keep developing the proposals with the Player Advisory Council, the Tournament Advisory Council and the ATP Board, while consulting its wider membership, with the goal of bringing a final package for consideration at its year-end meetings in Turin. Those meetings take place around the ATP Finals, which run from 15 to 22 November 2026.
Until a package is approved, nothing changes. The 2026 rules, including the $21.5 million Bonus Pool and the current doubles draws, stay in force, and the proposals are written to take effect from 2028.
Where It Stands — as of 28 October 2026
- 15 October: Gaudenzi’s open letter sets out the 2028 proposals.
- 27 October: doubles players, former players and federations ask the ATP to reconsider the doubles plans.
- November: a final package is due to be considered at the ATP’s year-end meetings in Turin.
This snapshot is dated and will change. The proposals as published above do not.
