Titanics Were Built to Sink

In the Round of 16 at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California today, Novak Djokovic, the third best tennis player in the world, dispatched his fellow countryman, Viktor Troicki (ranked 18 in the world) in just one hour and six minutes. The score was 6-0, 6-1, but Djokovic had two break points in the first game of the second set that would have, as the final score indicates, led him to a 6-0, 6-0 victory.

In general, love sets are rare in professional tennis. The players are so talented, and the Top 100 so deep, that to not win at least one game against any opponent is almost unheard of, which is why the record for consecutive love sets won is so remarkable.

The 1920s belonged to “Big” Bill Tilden; his statistics, records, and achievements are too vast to mention here in their entirety, but one – given Djokovic’s win today – is worth mentioning. In 1925, starting at a tournament in Glen Cove, New York and ending at another in Providence, Rhode Island, Tilden won 57 games in a row. That's 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, 3-0. If you play tennis, think back to the last time you won one set at love; if you don’t play tennis, imagine performing any endeavor at such a ridiculously high level that you realize perfection nearly ten times in a row. The mere notion, of course, is baffling; however, it showcases the mastery that was Tilden’s play and the brilliance that was his competitiveness.

Today we are almost 90 years removed from Tilden’s remarkable feat, and have been gawking at Roger Federer’s Grand Slam supremacy (16 titles) for nearly a decade now. Many believe Federer to be the greatest player of all time. But not long ago, the gaze was on Pete Sampras, who ended his career with 14 major titles, and at the time everyone claimed he was, without question, the greatest. What will we say about Federer when the unthinkable happens and someone wins 17 or 18 or 19 major titles? The truth is that superiority is relative; competitors in any sport can only be perceived as great when compared to those who came before them.

Sampras won his last major title in 2002 at the U.S. Open. Seven years later, in the same decade no less, Roger Federer defeated Andy Roddick 16-14 in the fifth set of one of the most heartbreaking finals in Wimbledon history, surpassing Sampras’s seemingly unattainable accomplishment at the same time. And someday some phenom from somewhere will break that record. Then it will be Federer’s inevitable turn to sit helplessly sweating in the front row, shielding his eyes while staring at the scoreboard as if to make sure the sun isn’t playing a dirty, yet all too familiar trick on him. Everything is eventual. Records, as they say, were made to be broken. Yet, 86 years later, Bill Tilden’s record still stands - forcing us to wonder.