A month ago, on July 10th, the yearly induction ceremony into the International Tennis Hall of Fame took place in Newport, Rhode Island. The Australians Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge, otherwise known as the "Woodies," were two of the inductees in 2010 in consideration of their accomplishments in doubles.
So dominant were the Woodies in doubles that they held the record for the most doubles title on the ATP Tour with 61 titles for a decade, until last week when the Bryan brothers won the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles for their 62nd title. Bryan brothers plan on playing for several more years; therefore chances are the final number of titles won by them will be a very hard one to break.
Yet the real question remains: how many people are really aware of these incredible accomplishments? How many casual tennis fans watch a full match of doubles? And the classic and evasive "well, it's never on TV" answer is simply no longer valid; you can watch plenty of doubles on the Tennis Channel, and even major channels are beginning to show portions of doubles matches, if not the full matches, time-permitting. Despite all this, can any casual tennis fan name one other doubles team other than the Bryan brothers?
Over the last couple of decades, it took all the marketing efforts of a few spectacular and "easy-to-nickname" doubles teams (examples: the Jensen brothers, the Woodies, the Bryan brothers) and a recent lawsuit to keep doubles competition surviving as a major event.
There is no denying that a few fans who rigorously read all tennis news and make it a point to watch some big tournaments on TV may perhaps know Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic, the current number one doubles team in the world. On the other hand, names such as Mark Knowles, Lukas Dlouhy, Laender Paes, and Lukasz Kubot — just to name a few doubles specialists — and even Nestor and Zimonjic themselves, remain obscure to the casual tennis fan, either because they are virtually unknown in singles or because the casual tennis fan simply does not care about doubles unless it's himself/herself playing on the courts of the local tennis club. I always believed that out of the two listed above the reason for the lack of interest is the former and not the latter.
Interestingly enough, this week may provide some partial answers. It will be the first time since the summer of 1976 when Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe played as a doubles team twice, once in Washington and once in New Hampshire, that the number one and two singles players in the world, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, will team together to play doubles in Rogers Cup in Toronto, taking place this week.
I wanted secretly for many years to see Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal play doubles in one major event, believing that it would do wonders for the popularity of doubles, just like the Williams sisters playing together does more for women's doubles than any other ladies team has done for decades since Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver. I trusted that if fierce enemies (and not only on the court) such as Arthur Ashe and Jimmy Connors could get together for one tournament, good friends such as Federer and Nadal could surely do it one time. It never happened.
However, Djokovic and Nadal is the next best thing, and they are indeed the two top-ranked players in the world after Federer dropped to No. 3 the week following Wimbledon. I hope TV takes the opportunity to show every match of this doubles team. I will come out and say openly that I am rooting for this "unseeded" doubles team of Novak and Rafa, and I seriously hope that they can go all the way, taking out both of the top two doubles seeds Zimonjic and Nestor and the Bryan brothers. I am rooting for them because this type of partnership is exactly what doubles competition needs in order to gain exposure.
If Nadal and Djokovic would win the Rogers Cup, more attention would focus on doubles following this week than any moment following the big news of the past few weeks mentioned in the beginning of the article. And now imagine if Nadal and Djokovic were to decide to play doubles in the U.S. Open following a victory in Rogers Cup. It's true that this last one is unlikely, and that is why I used "imagine," but I don't consider the chances of Djokovic and Nadal winning the doubles this week at Rogers Cup as unlikely. And if they win the title, I guarantee at least one thing: the number of casual tennis fans who know the names of a doubles team other than Bob and Mike Bryan will increase dramatically.
August 9, 2010
Mert Ertunga:
Update: Unfortunately, Nadal and Djokovic lost in the first round. I hope this will not deter them from playing together in the future. Top two doubles teams in the world are still there, but I fear the coverage of doubles in the media will be much less than if Rafa and Novak had made it far in the draw.
August 10, 2010
Umit Oraloglu:
Mert,
I agree with your comments, however everyone must realize, when players like Nadal, Novak etc.. team up in the doubles, they arent taking it seriously as the Bryan’s etc…
I personally believe, if the ITF came out and said, re playing in the doubles, there will be an option for players to gain points in doubles matches and if they wanted, they can either transfer some of those points towards their singles ranking or keep it completely for their doubles ranking, then I guarantee you, more of the top singles players will enter doubles tournaments. What do you think of this idea???
Regards,
Umit
August 10, 2010
Selim:
Mert, thanks for bringing doubles into the limelight!
Being an avid fan of tennis in the 80s’s and 90’s, I miss the days when top singles players used to play doubles. McEnroe’s feat of 77 singles and 77 doubles titles still amazes me and is a stat that we’ll never be able to see again (Nadal has 6 doubles titles which is actually pretty impressive). I love the phrase by Peter Fleming “the best doubles in the team in the world is McEnroe and anyone”. Let’s also give credit to Stefan Edberg who won a couple of doubles slams, was a regular at Slams in the 80’s with Anders Jarryd, and is the only player other than Johnny Mac to be ranked #1 in singles and doubles in Open Era. A lot of other examples of singles players playing doubles in the 80’s & 90’s come to mind, e.g. ‘91 Wimbledon champ Stich winning ‘92 doubles with, who else but, McEnroe.
This is another reason I love Davis Cup and Olympics, two tennis events not necessarily followed by the casual tennis fan, but provide us that rare opportunity to see top singles players play doubles. Sampras had played couple of doubles with McEnroe & Todd Martin back in the day and, who can forget Roger Federer’s dream run with Stanislas Wawrinka in the ‘08 Beijing Olympics, overcoming Bryan brothers having played 2 matches in one day!
Nowadays, top players are using pre-Grand Slam tournaments to play doubles and get some extra matches under their belt in new surfaces. Djokovic winning Queens Club doubles this June is a good example. Unfortunately, they only play in preparation tournaments and when it comes to Slams, it’s every man for himself again and they concentrate only on singles not to be too tired.
As you say, let’s hope Nadal & Djokovic is a start of something new and we see top players playing doubles like in the good old days.
Selim
August 10, 2010
Mert Ertunga:
Umit: It’s absolutely a good idea. The motivation would for sure be there. I am not sure if it would make past the standard “tennis season is already too rigorous, we already play too much” cliche…
Selim: You bring up a great example with Federer and Wawrinka. One great and and one solid singles player team up to beat the world’s most accomplished doubles’ team. This is why you see Davis Cup Captains often going with their best two players at the doubles Saturday rather than an accomplished doubles team made up of lesser talented players.
By the way, Peter Fleming was right :) McEnroe in his prime won a Grand Prix doubles tournament with his brother Patrick (I don’t remember which tournament) when Patrick was actually in high school !!!