Once a vital training ground for singles success, doubles is now seeing a shift, as evidenced by Coco Gauff’s journey. Gauff, who reached her first major doubles final at the 2021 US Open and later triumphed at the 2024 French Open, ironically admitted after previous losses, “maybe I should focus on singles.” Shortly after her French Open win, Gauff revealed her “biggest dream” of an Olympic gold medal, hinting at scaling back her doubles partnership with Jessica Pegula after the Paris Olympics. Despite their five titles and top rankings, Gauff planned to “pick out tournaments a lot better,” aiming to focus on Slams, a decision that surprised many fans. Subsequently, the tennis pundits observe a decline in top singles players prioritizing doubles.

This year’s Indian Wells saw a stark contrast to past tournaments. Coco Gauff, after her R16 singles exit, opted out of doubles entirely. On the men’s side, a mere two Top 10 players, Alexander Zverev and Andrey Rublev, participated in doubles. Has the ‘tournament of the year’ lost its doubles allure? American tennis legends Sam Querrey, Jack Sock, John Isner, and Steve Johnson were recently observed grappling with this very question, attempting to understand the reasons behind what they deemed the ‘awful’ state of the Indian Wells doubles draw.

Johnson started the conversation by saying, “I always wanted to play the Indian Wells’ doubles with one of my buddies because I just have a lot of fun out there.” Isner agreeing to it said, “We all talk about how loaded typically the Indian Wells doubles field in every year. Now having said that this year, the doubles draw is awful.” Sock then joined him, asking, “Why are the guys not playing?” In reply, Querrey stepped in and added, “That’s what I was going to bring up why aren’t the top guys playing it anymore?“

According to Isner, “This is a brutal doubles draw. I’m not going to name names, but it’s just all the way through.” Then, Johnson tried to figure out the possible reason behind this snub by saying, “This is a low light for them. A low point for the doubles.”

Sam Querrey then pointed out a stark contrast between past and present doubles participation. He noted that during his era, approximately 9 out of Top 10 players competed in doubles, while that number has dwindled to roughly 1 out of 10 today. Explaining the reason behind the same, Isner said, “That’s because you have so much time to rest, you’re not playing everyday. There’s a lot of days off in between even if you keep winning singles. I don’t know the reason why they’re not playing.“

As per Johnson, “The doubles guys are on site later, so they started the tournament later for doubles.” He stressed the fact that players often request to play doubles events before the singles in order to get used to the surface and conditions better before kickstarting things on the singles side. Steve believes the scheduling could be one of the issues behind this.

Querrey hinted that the players might just be filling the voids in the doubles events by participating in fun events like the UTS or the Eisenhower doubles. Furthermore, Isner said that it is a “bummer for fans though like not to see Alcaraz out there on the double court.” 

How far have we gone in the doubles event at the Indian Wells this year, and who are the American players still alive in this tournament? 

Top seeds Taylor Townsend and Katerina Siniakova get knocked out of the Indian Wells doubles event

While most of the players are slowly moving away from the doubles event, there are players like Siniakova and Townsend who have kept shining in these events. According to the Czech star, “I love to play doubles, so I’m just really happy that I can say I have all this success, but it sounds amazing.” She said this after clinching the AO title at the doubles even earlier this year. Both Townsend and Siniakova later on even clinched the Dubai Tennis Championships.

After accomplishing this extraordinary feat in Dubai, Townsend reached the second spot in the women’s doubles ranking. She even shared a screenshot of the current WTA doubles ranking on her social media post with the caption, “PROUD” 7 weeks⏳ 2 trophies 🏆 🏆 New career-high ranking ✌🏾📈 Lots of tears.. even more growth.” After that win, Siniakova hit 140 career weeks at the number one spot. Following that impressive run in Dubai, everyone expected them to clinch the title at the Indian Wells as well, but they were defeated in the SF.

Asia Muhammad (USA) and Demi Schuurs (Netherlands) defeated this iconic duo of Townsend and Siniakova by 6-4,4-6,(10-8). With this result, as things stand, Muhammad is the only American woman left in the doubles event at Indian Wells. However, on the men’s side, Sebastian Korda (USA) and Jordan Thompson (AUS) reached the finals. They’ll face top seeds Marcelo Arevalo (El Salvador) and Mate Pavic (Croatia) in the final. Do you think these two Americans can end up on the winning side in the doubles event at Indian Wells?