Sports fans and the athletes they worship are all about records being set, broken and re-written.
If you don’t believe me, you’ve clearly forgotten about
Roger Federer and his fancy “15” jump suit that was displayed in all its glory last year at
Wimbledon when he broke
Pete Sampras’ Grand Slam record.
More often than not in sports, it’s hard to justify that the person with the most of anything is therefore the best.
Pete Rose is baseball’s all-time hit leader with 4,256. Even before he was revealed as a gambling sociopath, there was no one alive who thought that Rose, a .303 lifetime hitter, was better with a bat than
Ty Cobb, who finished second in hits (4,191) but first in batting average (.366).
The same holds true in football, where
Emmitt Smith is the all-time rushing leader with 18,355 yards. Saying that Smith was a better running back than
Walter Payton or
Jim Brown however will get you laughed out of any sports bar in the country. To my point, I give you
Bob and Mike Bryan, who
won the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles on Sunday for their 62nd tour-level doubles title, breaking the previous record of 61 held by
Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde.
The audience that pays close attention to doubles tennis is minimal. If the Bryans weren’t good-looking, personable American twins, the attention to their record chase would rate about an eight-second mention in the 59th minute of your morning hour-long SportsCenter.
The doubles tour is to the singles tour as Arena League Football is to the NFL. Yes, they’re playing approximately the same sport, but it’s not the top level of competition. If I’m channel-surfing, I might watch 15 minutes of it at midnight, but there’s no chance in hell I will ever DVR it.
Simply put, the best players on earth don’t play doubles regularly. Other than
Jurgen Melzer, that’s not a single player in the ATP Top 30 doubles rankings who is also in the Top 30 singles. That’s not the Bryans’ fault as they can’t control who plays and who doesn’t. But it definitely waters down the “impressive achievement level” when there’s no
Nadal,
Federer or
Roddick on the other side And where’s the Grand Slam dominance gone?
The Bryans have won the Australian Open each of the past two years, but fallen short at the other three Slams regularly. They haven’t won the French since 2003 and failed at Wimbledon since 2006.
With the twins now 32 years old, the window of opportunity should start closing bit by bit. Skipping a few lesser tournaments in the years to come to focus on shoring up their Grand Slam winning percentage is the key to giving themselves a true legacy past just a number.
What's on your mind?
Post a comment below.