Could be a very good option for Scott and indeed Marcus if Jonny moves on. The "could" clearly depends very much on Marcus as well as them gelling as a pair. But on the face of it they "could" at the very least be a very decent challenger pair.

Be interesting to see how things develop on the doubles partnerships front.

L16:  (1) Scott Clayton & Marcus Willis CR 344 (128+216) defeated Riccardo Balzerani & Laurynas Grigelis (ITA/LTU) CR 1105 (907+198) by 7-6(5) 3-6 [10-7] 

I think you have to accept it is just a different variant of the game which doesn't require the same degree of athleticism and allows for some technical weaknesses to be mitigated by your partner and the reduced relative court size. It survives as a professional entity not as a fallback for failed singles players but for many other reasons.

It isn't singles and the players all know that, Luke's interview with Mike C was candid and insightful about his strengths weaknesses and aspirations, but it is not worthless and makes tennis accessible, fun and dare I say competitive to play even at an age when the vast majority of other sports are long gone as an option. The team component helps tennis clubs be that clubs and without it there would be very little competitive tennis at an inter or intra club level. It is also very enjoyable to watch particularly for those that play it and helps pad out the later stages of tennis competitions making them more of an event for spectators.

I too find Marcus's failure to maximise his talents and indeed if tennis was a mass participation sport like football he would have struggled to play outside of non league if at all with his general level of fitness and application. Andy would probably have made some strides as a footballer but to what level we will never know, as a tennis player agreed he is the best Brit of all time. He has made the last decade or so of top level tennis relevant to the British sports fan which really apart from the odd bit of success from Virginia Wade and Tim it has been an irrelevance. It probably isn't fare to compare the snickers chomping PJ Cola swilling Marcus with Andy who is a British Tennis icon and to be fair to him, how dull would tennis be without a bit of variety and personality. Much like the first rounds of the FA Cup there is plenty of joy to be had from qualifying and the first few rounds of Wimbledon which for Marcus was the pinnacle of his career, until he wins the mixed doubles!