On a warm, scorching day under the sun in Flushing Meadows a fifteen year old called Catherine made the headlines for all the right reasons. It encouraged me to seek as to whether American tennis is on the rise and just why/who supports my theory on this particular topic.
The Bright Future of American Women’s Tennis
The talk within the US Media and occasionally globally is rife about where the next Serena Williams will be produced and it’s almost like a ticking time bomb on whether a new Grand Slam champion will be produced in 2 years, 5 years or more. The cry to the heavens for a new Serena or even to some degree a Jennifer Capriati is persistent and I look into exactly why American tennis fans have nothing to worry about.
United States currently sit at the top of the tree in terms of players situated within the Top 100, which I find staggering when you consider great tennis nations like Russia, Czech Republic and even Italy after their successes at Fed Cup level. USA have a total of twelve players inside that Top 100, Russia have the six and a great conveyor belt of tennis players in Spain have just the five.
When you analyze exactly what the United States have to work from in the next five years it only spells good potential, first of all they have attained a future grand slam contender in my eyes in Madison Keys. Why do I think she has the game to unlock the grand slam passageway after Serena? There’s a number of reasons, she’s got one of the best serves in the women’s game, at just 19 years of age. She can also produce variation on her first and second serve, which is completely sparse in the women’s game, the only players that really can change up their second serve in the WTA are the elite, which consists of Serena Williams, Petra Kvitova and Sam Stosur, who possesses perhaps the best kick serve in women’s tennis.
Madison Keys at 19 has the biggest upside of the next batch of rising stars and I put most of her recent success in 2014 including the Eastbourne maiden title win due to her training blocks over the off season. I’ve spectated interviews of her in the past and she values the sufficient focus on working on the core of the body in training in order to create a solid base on the court and I believe that’s translated well to her tennis game. Her defensive to offense game-work has improved immensely and she’s a prime example of everything good about American tennis solely on the women’s side.
Other prospects include Victoria Duval, Lauren Davis, Christina McHale and Sloane Stephens that are all at a relatively young age yet still prospering in their own individual way. Victoria Duval at just 18 won three matches after being diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma in the qualifying of Wimbledon, that determined her debut into the World’s Top 100, which reflects the determination behind a US girl at such a young age.
Sloane Stephens had her own second week streak of 6 grand slam second week appearances until earlier this year and she’s become an enigma on the big stage. Her performances at lower tier events has been deemed questionable by many but her hunger for the big tournaments burns a greater desire than anybody. She’s another potential grand slam champion for the future but mentally in relation to her appliance and attitude on/off the court is one of the biggest regressions to her game as we speak.
Another player that isn’t inside the Top 100 but has great potential is Taylor Townsend, who is currently placed at around 103 in the world. Maneuvering through mix and match tennis, serve and volleying, eccentric strokes she has it all- she has an Australian Open juniors title and a Wimbledon juniors runner up trophy to her name and has plenty of gifted weaponry that will fizzle to the top tier of women’s tennis given a few years. She’s one to look out for- a great character for the game.
So is there anything that suggests that American tennis won’t produce a ‘Grand Slam’ champion in the next five years? One interesting stat is that an American woman hasn’t made better than the fourth round of a grand slam in all of 2014 and that includes Serena Williams. In many ways it shows that the American contingency of young stars are still not ready to make that next step to the big time. It’ll be interesting to see how Keys, Stephens and Duval react to the pressure that comes with making a Grand Slam challenge when Serena decides to hang up her racquet.
It can go one of two ways, Keys may rise to the occasion or some could falter under the limelight.
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