Without any emotive rhetoric or balderdash, Yuki Bhambri says that he has quit the singles format. The 28-year-old, once considered a top-50 prospect, is the first big Indian player after Sania Mirza to quit the singles format to prolong his tennis career.Tired of a stop-start singles career due to knee injuries, Yuki had made up his mind sometime back that doubles is the way forward for him. He did not make any excuse that the system did not help him enough, nor did he have any regrets that he could not achieve the heights he was expected to.Walking out of the outside courts at the Balewadi stadium, his gait was assuring as he uttered,”no more singles for me”.’I did the best I knew in my singles career and I am at peace with it. Maybe things were wrong, maybe it was bad luck, I don’t know. No regrets, there is nothing more I could have done,” Yuki told PTI in an interaction.”It was more because of injuries and not for lack of sponsors. Sponsors were not there and I was fortunate to have done well throughout my career and could continue on the Tour but, of course, injuries were a big factor.”Just last weekend he was competing in the singles qualifiers at the Tata Open Maharashtra, so was it a sudden decision to quit the format? Yuki said the idea to play the singles qualifying event was to earn some prize money by entering the main draw because the doubles does not offer much.But the decision to quit singles was taken long back. ”I (had) decided in 2019 that doubles is the way forward for me and I wanted to do it while I was still able to play a bit of singles, which I did last year. I was injured. I came back in 2021 and the first 2-3 tournaments I played using Protected Ranking. Then I went to America and got covid and I got hurt again, so the plan was always there but it got delayed,” he explained.At the peak of his career when he broke into the top-100 in 2018, Bhambri was eyeing a place in the top-50 in the next season but injuries to both his knees took away the crucial three and a half years.