First, Andy Murray was glowing in his praise on social media for a second-round singles match at the French Open between Benoit Paire and Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

Top-ranked Herbert had secured a career Grand Slam in doubles with Nicolas Mahut earlier in the year, but he has moved out of the tramlines to focus solely on improving his singles ranking of 43.

Murray’s comments were picked up by the mainstream media when he said the all-French showdown was "a brilliant game… great volleys, drop shots, lobs…so different from most of the tennis you see nowadays".

Herbert lost 11-9 in the fifth set but another doubles specialist, world number one Kateřina Siniaková, enjoyed more success, pulling off the biggest shock of the first week at Roland-Garros.

The Czech player is down at 42 in the singles rankings but she beat Naomi Osaka, the top seed and world number one, in straight sets.

You might think, on reading about Herbert and Siniakova, that there must be more players hiding in the nether world of doubles who can stride out on their own, knock over a few big names and storm up the Association of Tennis Professional (ATP) or Women's Tennis Association rankings.

But if you read the third doubles-related story of last week you might think again.

Leander Paes, who first hit a ball in international tennis in 1991, the year when Björn Borg tried to make a comeback and the Cold War finally ended, wants to play at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo when he will be 47-years-old.

It’s one thing having middle-aged people compete in shooting and equestrian events, but tennis?

How can any meaningful athletic sport, one that requires its players to have an exceptional level of fitness, be taken seriously if a 47-year-old can play at the top level?

The answer is: it can’t. 

Doubles tennis is not a meaningful sport, a point made by John McEnroe, whose view of Paes’ Tokyo 2020 target might well be, "You cannot be serious."

McEnroe is an outspoken critic of doubles, even though he teamed up with Peter Fleming for many Grand Slam victories, and it’s easy to see why.

As Wimbledon draws near you can expect to hear a few grumbles about prize money for doubles players.

"Mixed doubles prize money stagnant for a decade" was a headline from 2017, while last year Jamie Murray complained that the seven per cent of the pot given to doubles players was too low.

"The players deserve a better percentage," he said at the Australian Open.

Apart from the Davis Cup, in which the format plays an important part, doubles is an add-on that exists to sell seats at Grand Slams.

It’s a bit of fun, or as Frenchman Paire said last week, a time to "relax or de-stress".

There is nothing wrong with a bit of fun in sport, but that’s all it is, fun and a good way for greedy Grand Slam organisers to fill seats on outside courts where you can watch men’s doubles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles, boys’ doubles, girls’ doubles and the dreaded invitation doubles.

The BBC seems to like it for filling airtime too, though nobody can remember who they were watching when it's time to switch off.

Everybody can remember magnificent singles matches such as Borg-McEnroe or Nadal-Federer, but can anyone recall the great doubles showdowns in tennis history? Or reel off a list of recent Grand Slam doubles winners?

According to ATP stats Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray have, between them, won more than $300 million (£240 million/€270 million) in prize money - only a small fraction of which came from doubles.

Most of the big earners in tramline tennis have amassed a few million but have never won anything at singles because they are not good enough – players such as the Colombian Robert Farah, the Romanian Horia Tecau and the Croatian Nikola Mektić, the world number 408 on his own, who has picked up nearly $2 million (£1.6 million/€1.8 million) at doubles.

Jamie Murray has won more than $4.5 millon (£3.5 million/€4 million) throughout his career, and has never been ranked higher than 834 at singles.

Yes, he helped Britain to a Davis Cup win but come on, does he deserve more than $4.5 million for being the 834th best tennis player in the world, at his peak?

No, McEnroe has it right.

When the subject of doubles came up in one of his interviews a few years ago he said, "Why are we even playing it?"

For a bit of fun, as Leander Paes will show if he plays in his eighth Olympic Games next year.

Paes is a brilliant doubles player, winner of dozens of titles. But don’t pretend this is meaningful sport.