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Originally Posted by MarkBGregory
Basic question: when do you stop playing your players in both singles and doubles tournaments, and start focusing them on just singles?
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Good question. First, my general answer is, as you suggested in part of your post, when you get to the Top 32. I talked about some of the why in a post earlier in the thread, but scheduling is really the reason here. The biggest scheduling change is when you go from playing challengers(at least largely) to playing Masters/Slams as the core of your tournaments, and optimally that's when you hit the Top 32 so you can be seeded at Slams and IW/Miami. At this point you no longer need to prioritize xp over ranking because they are both served best by the same thing -- getting as many matches in at the big events as possible. Due to the significant xp 'bonus' you get from matches in those events, the #1 thing to do for both concerns is to go as deep as you can in Masters and Slams, which means having your form peak in order to so is the top priority. At this stage I stop playing doubles all the time and only play doubles in the WTC or when it's useful to get form where I want it to be. What tends to happen is, the further you progress up the rankings, the less you need doubles matches to do this, and the very best players will basically not play doubles at all because it's counterproductive(pushes form too high).
Example 1: I'd say keep playing both until, as mentioned, you reach the Top 32.
Example 2: Even with the high aging, keep playing both. It's a frustrating point to go through trying to get up there, but until you are good enough to consistently win the top Challengers, you aren't good enough to make a lot of noise in Slams. Make the most of that short peak by training up as much as you can before you get there
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