Navaratilova competes in a continued search for glory

The singles takes priority and the singles is Wimbledon.

Who can remember who won the doubles, let alone anyone else who took part?

There's the Woodies, the Williams sisters, Martina Navratilova and that funny chap with the moustache who plays for laughs with Henri Leconte.

Well the Woodies are no more, the Williams sisters took the defence of their title so seriously they withdrew, Navratilova is now 44 and plays on in her endless search for a 20th Wimbledon title, and Mansour Bahrami, the bloke with the moustache, does play just for laughs.

The star players in the world of tennis turn their back on doubles and, as a result, on finals weekend the stage is set for players such as Donald Johnson, Jared Palmer and Ai Sugiyama.

They may not be household names and attract full houses to Centre Court but they are the best in the world.

The American pairing of Johnson and Palmer team up in the men's doubles against Jiri Novak and David Rikl.

All four are in the top 10 of the doubles rankings, a list that is notable for the sparcity of the "big names" from the world of singles.

Only Yevgeny Kafelnikov plays both disciplines to the highest standard with rankings of six and 13 in singles and doubles respectively.

Sugiyama should be a big draw

The Russian's absence from this year's competition left his compatriot, Marat Safin, and the much trumpeted pairing of Jan-Michael Gambill and Andy Roddick as the only truly big names playing in both singles and doubles.

The Americans lost in the first round and Safin, partnered by Marc Rosset, struggled through two five set matches before falling to the Belorussian pairing of Max Mirnyi and Vladimir Voltchkov.

The lack of big names is even more marked among the men in the mixed doubles in which the women hardly pull their weight.

Jelena Dokic made the third round but the other notable entrants - Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Barbara Schett and Jennifer Capriati, who was partnered by her brother - fell at the first hurdle.

In the women's doubles it was a similar story.

Schett was knocked out in the first round, Amelie Mauresmo in the second and Justine Henin in the third.

Dokic, partnered by former singles winner Conchita Martinez, also made the third round before losing to Sugiyama and her partner, Kim Clijsters, in three sets.

Leconte clowns around

Clijsters, ranked 7th in the singles and 39th in the doubles, is the only person to make the latter stages of both the singles and the doubles.

Martina Hingis, the Williams sisters and Anna Kournikova are notable players ranked higher than the Belgian in doubles but they still fall short of her Japanese partner who is the world's number one.

Sugiyama, Johnson and Palmer are some of the best in the world at their chosen discipline and deserve to play to full houses.

But unless their more popular peers join the competition they are destined to perform before rows of empty seats.

The appearance of Clijsters in the final might draw in the crowds but when the players do not take doubles seriously how can the crowd be expected to.