Wimbledon always goes by way too fast. Having played lots of tennis growing up and
slowly becoming a tennis fan, I love the two weeks that is Wimbledon. But in the blink of an eye the fortnight is
over and the All England Club is quiet again.
A day after a thrilling five-set final between Roger Federer and Novak
Djokovic tennis goes back to being all but irrelevant in the minds of many American
sports fans. Now surely someone could
say the same about soccer and the World Cup as it seems like soccer steals the
headlines every four years in America and then everyone goes back to caring
about the more popular sports in the states.
However, it seems like four times a year, after every grand slam final, tennis
gets its fair share of coverage on SportsCenter.
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| Here is the Sports Illustrated cover after Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal played what remains the greatest tennis match of all time. The 2008 Wimbledon Final. |
Federer, Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Andy Murray are what
causes SportsCenter to start the show with a Wimbledon Final like they did
yesterday after Sunday Night Baseball.
Had the final been between Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria and Canada’s
Milos Raonic, two young upstart tennis players on the rise and the other two Wimbledon
semifinalists, I highly doubt many people would even be interested in knowing who
won. The average American sports fan
knows these four tennis players and, for the most part, that’s it. The average American sports fan isn’t aware
of the fact that Dimitrov and Raonic are two faces that should be around for a
while in men’s tennis. The average American
sports fan hears Stanislas Wawrinka defeats Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open
Final, pauses, and then says…who?
It’s a shame there isn’t an elite American tennis player
right now like an Andy Roddick. Sorry
John Isner I’m not seeing it just yet. This certainly would help. But Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, and Murray are
four names known across the world as the elite when it comes to men’s tennis
and everyone else is trying to break through.
Over the last six to seven years, so frequently have we seen two of
these players facing off in grand slam finals and semifinals. Often times this leads to a great match like
we saw yesterday. So the average
American sports fan looks at something like yesterday knowing that two of the
best players in the world are competing on the biggest stage in tennis and
decides to tune in.
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| Getty Images Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic embrace after Murray defeated Djokovic in last year's Wimbledon Final becoming the first British man to win Wimbledon in 77 years. |
For someone like me, who watches as much of every grand slam
as I can and tries to keep an eye on what’s going on in the other smaller
events, the first week of a major can be rough.
I’m watching the big names cruise and I’m thinking, where’s the parity
in this game?! Where’s the madness?! Sure Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, and Murray
have all bowed out early in majors before.
As a matter of fact, Nadal and Murray were both out before the
semifinals at Wimbledon. But these four
men drive the sport and parity maybe isn’t what’s best for the game regarding
popularity in America. Epic grand slam
finals are what gets people in America talking about tennis. I’ve had an ongoing debate with the man who I
began taking tennis lessons from about who the best tennis player of all time
is and it seems like the conversation is down to Nadal and Federer, no disrespect
to Pete Sampras, Rod Laver, and all the other greats. The point is, you can talk about a lot about
these four, partiucarly Nadal and Federer who have been at the top a little
longer than Djokovic and Murray, because we’re so used to seeing them in big
matches.
Considering many would say Federer and Nadal will go down as
the two greatest players of all time, leave the order in which you rank them up
for debate, just knowing that right now we can watch both and the talent level
of Djokovic and Murray is equally as capable right now, should make any match
when two of these four are playing worth watching by any sports fan regardless
of how much tennis one may watch.
Popularity in American sports is very dependent on stars. Look at how popular the NBA has become and
how it’s such a star-driven league. Say
what you want about Stephen A. Smith, I for one don’t really care for him, but
he saw two tennis stars going at it in the final decided to put out a few
tweets about the match most notably this:
Another tweet that caught my eye was Stephen A’s response to
a follower asking for them to talk more about tennis on First Take to help its
popularity in America:
While I can’t say I always do, I definitely agree here. While the increased coverage is nice, what
America really needs is its own tennis star, and as I alluded to earlier, I’m
just not seeing that yet. But watching
these four battle it out for majors isn’t a bad consolation and almost surely
gets the average American sports fan to tune in.
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