John McEnroe Rips Doubles, Says He’ll Take Federer/Nadal Over The Bryans Any Day!
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Speaking at the Statoil Masters earlier this week, outspoken legend John McEnroe ripped into the current state of doubles on the tennis circuit, calling for the discipline to be abolished!
“Why we are even playing doubles at this point is a mystery to me,” McEnroe told the Telegraph. “I love doubles but I don’t even recognise what this is. … They play an inch from the net. It is like wham, bam, thank you ma’am.
“If you cut out doubles and gave that money to singles players ranked between 200 and 1,000, maybe that would do something for the game. Then some other guy who never really had the chance to play ends up becoming No 100 in the world instead of quitting when he’s No 400.
“Most doubles players, I hate to say, are the slow guys who were not quick enough to play singles.”
As the moment few top singles players enter doubles tournaments and among the final 16 men (8 teams) to qualify for the London ATP Finals event last month, only the Bryans, Leander Paes, Radek Stepanek and Fernando Verdasco were among the faces an average fan would recognize.
And even the Bryans, one of the all-times greats, were in McEnroe’s crosshairs.
“What do you think they are playing doubles for? I like them and single-handledly they’ve tried to keep doubles going. There is something cool to watch these twins.
“But sometimes I hear people saying they are the greatest doubles players of all time. I’m like ‘Excuse me?’ If you put Federer and Nadal together, I am taking them.”
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