Ten reasons for concern about American tennis
This week, for the first time since rankings began in 1973, there is no American among the world’s top-10 men’s players, with Andy Roddick dropping two places down to world No. 11.
Roddick has, since the end of the Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi era, carried the USA’s hopes of tennis success, at least on the men’s side of the action. And Roddick has, by and large, held up his end of the bargain at a time when the dominance of two players – Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal – has been close to absolute.
On an individual level, it’s the first time Roddick has been out of the top 10 since August 2006, and it comes on the back of his upset 6-3, 6-3 loss to France’s Gilles Simon in the third round in Washington last week, a defeat the 27-year-old struggled to explain.
“I don’t have much of a defence for it and I don’t think you can defend it,” Roddick said afterwards before admitting to feeling more lethargic than usual over the past weeks.
Roddick, together with the now waning James Blake, has carried the can for the USA since he won the US Open in 2003 – the last time any American man won a Grand Slam title.
He’s performed admirably too, with only Federer standing between him and the Wimbledon silverware on three occasions.
But as Roddick drops out of the top 10, to leave it devoid of American representatives, does it collectively raise questions about the state of tennis in the States?
In short, yes. Roddick leads a pack of solid and moderately successful players including John Isner (world No. 19), Sam Querrey (world No 21) and even the rejuvenated Mardy Fish (world No. 34).
In 2010 that quartet has claimed nine titles between them: Roddick emerged victorious in Brisbane and the Miami Masters 1000; Isner won his maiden ATP Tour title in Auckland during January and has reached three further finals this year; Querrey has four titles on three surfaces this year, and trails only Nadal in number of titles won this season, although arguably Nadal’s crowns have been solid gold while Querrey’s are cheaper knock-offs; while 28-year-old Fish claimed consecutive titles in Atlanta and Newport this summer.
They are results and rankings that testify to the capability of all four players, but that’s the problem with American tennis right now: they’ve got their share of good players, but are lacking in great ones.
The proof is in the top 10.
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