Rio 2016: Winning Olympic gold isn’t the zenith for likes of Federer and Nadal, winning majors is

The Olympics come around every four years, but for most players picking up one of the four grand slams on offer each year means much more.

Andy Murray won Wimbledon for the second time this month. Tony O'Brien / Reuters

To be or not to be? That was the question back in the 1980s, and it still is.

A bit like the famous soliloquy from William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the tennis world has been agonising over her place at the Olympics ever since making a comeback to the Games, as a full medal sport, at Seoul in 1988 following a 64-year hiatus.

Tennis was one of the original nine sports contested at the 1896 Olympics, but by 1928 it had fallen foul of rules forbidding the participation of professionals.

It made two appearances as a demonstration sport, in 1968 and 1984, before making a full comeback, but the men’s No 1 of the time, Mats Wilander, decided to skip the Games.

The reason he gave was “shin splints”, but the injury did not prevent him from returning to the ATP Tour, at a tournament in Palermo, at the same time as the Games.

“An Olympic gold medal wouldn’t be like winning the Davis Cup or a grand slam tournament,” Wilander had said earlier that year.

Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe were among other players to give Seoul a miss. On the women’s side, Martina Navratilova, the world No 2 at the time, told the Chicago Tribune, “I don’t think of tennis as a real Olympic sport”, as she chose to opt out of the Games.

See also:

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• Rio 2016: Compared to warriors like Nadal and Williams, Generation Y are a bunch of wimps

McEnroe has said publicly he regretted his decision not to play at the 1988 Olympics, while Agassi, who won the gold medal at the 1996 Games in Atlanta, said: “To win a grand slam is the greatest thing in the sport, but to win an Olympics is the biggest thing you can do in all sports.”

Indeed, it is. Hockey have their world cups, and so do swimming and athletics, but the Olympics are the still the pinnacle of their sports.

Swimmers and athletes dream of winning an Olympic gold, for it elevates them to the status of national heroes. Do the Olympics mean the same for a tennis player? Or golf? Honestly not.

Do we even remember who won the men’s singles Olympic gold at the 1988 Games (Miloslav Mecir), where Stefan Edberg was the only top 10-ranked player in action?

Marc Rosset won gold four years later in Barcelona, defeating Jordi Arrese of Spain, a man with a 224-210 career record and who was never ranked higher than No 23 in the world. Nicolas Massu won gold at Athens in 2004, defeating Mardy Fish in the final.

Now, let us look at those who have not won Olympic gold. The list includes Pete Sampras, Roger Federer (silver in 2012) and Novak Djokovic (bronze in 2008) on the men's side.

The last two still have a chance this time around in Brazil next month, but honestly, would they really grieve if Federer or Djokovic finish their careers without an Olympic singles gold, given their respective haul of 17 and 12 grand slams?

Do we even care that Sampras, who won 14 majors in his career, never won an Olympic gold?

What really matters in tennis is the number of majors won. They are the true barometers of success in tennis and Federer and Djokovic have won enough to earn a place in sporting folklore, alongside great Olympians such as Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt.

So, to come back to that age-old question: Does tennis really belong at the Olympics?

Most tennis players would prefer to avoid such questions, but Sam Querrey, the men’s world No 29, who has decided against going to Rio, did not shy away when asked the question last week.

“I think for tennis and golf, the Olympics isn’t a top priority,” the American said. “We have four grand slams. I think those kind of take the lead. Those are the main focus for us.”

The likes of Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, Federer, Djokovic and Serena Williams might possibly disagree with him, but Querrey is probably right.

Would the world athletics chiefs schedule a grand prix at the same time as the Olympics? There is no break in the ATP or WTA calendars for the Olympics, and that should tell you how important the Games are for tennis’ mandarins.

Rory McIlroy, the golf superstar, said it best when he described the difference between the other athletes and golfers when it comes to the Olympics: “Most other athletes dream their whole lives of competing in the Olympics, winning an Olympic gold, and we haven’t. We dream of winning Claret Jugs [British Opens] and we dream of winning green jackets [The Masters].”

If the tennis world was honest with itself, it would agree.

With four majors to fight for every year, the Olympics, happening once every four years, do not seem like such a big deal.

But if you still disagree, then here is what Rod Laver, one of tennis' greatest, had to say in a 2004 interview with the Tennis magazine.

“I just think tennis doesn’t lend itself to being an Olympic sport,” said the Australian legend, and winner of 11 grand slams. “To me, the Olympics is track and field.”

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