The organisers of men's tennis will scrap the third set for doubles and replace it with a tiebreak from next year to speed up play, the ATP said on Sunday.
The new-look format will consist of a first-to-10 tiebreak and there will also be no advantage played in the first two sets with games decided by the first point after deuce.
ATP officials announced their decision at the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai despite fierce objection from doubles players.
"We want to try to make it more exciting," said ATP chairman Etienne de Villiers. "We want to make it more attractive. We want to get people to watch this wonderful game of doubles."
Several specialist doubles players filed a lawsuit against the ATP in September seeking an injunction to stop the ATP from implementing changes to scoring rules and qualifying methods.
Players involved in the suit include American twins Bob and Mike Bryan, as well as Bahamian Mark Knowles and Canada's [Images] Daniel Nestor, who all played at the Masters Cup.
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