You see an article on this at least once a month: what’s wrong with American tennis? The country’s highest ranked male is John Isner at sixteenth; after that the next American is Sam Querrey at thirty-eighth. Meanwhile, smaller countries are packing players into the top 100 like never before. Switzerland have two players in the top five, yet the United States can’t get a player into the top ten. What are the American doing wrong?
Nothing. Looking at the rankings in this way is short sighted. While as a country, the USA is failing to produce top male singles players it’s important to remember that they do have the best female player in the world, the best Male doubles team in the world, the Junior boy’s number four player, and the Junior girl’s number two. Most adults grew up in an era of American domination of tennis. I was dazzled by the Agassi-Sampras rivalry as a child, and even got to see the “lower ranked” Americans like Todd Martin and Jim Courier. I say “lower ranked” because most of these players were still at the top of the men’s game.
As a country, America cannot continue to use men’s singles as our measuring stick for success. With the incredible globalization of tennis in the past twenty-thirty years we are seeing countries a tenth of their population produce world class players. The secret to their success?, Less competition for top athletes. America is not a tennis-centered country, nor does tennis play second fiddle to a major sport. One has to remember have to look at tennis as the sixth or seventh most popular sport in the US behind baseball, football, soccer, hockey, basketball, and maybe even lacrosse. With that many sports competing for our boys’ interest it’s no wonder that tennis has no LeBron James or Peyton Manning.
The country has continued to be a major player on the women’s side of the game. Even looking past Serena Williams, there are a crop of promising juniors who should at the very least be competitive at the top of the game. With young women one can eliminate a few of those sports that they compete with and as a by-product American Tennis gets better athletes. These athletes have continued to move American tennis in the correct direction.
The last factor in the decline of the men’s singles player in America is the “cool factor.” Tennis just isn’t as cool or even as accessible as a lot of other sports in this country. The country club reputation that goes with tennis doesn’t do it any favors amongst junior athletes. Inner city kids don’t look to tennis as a way out, because it’s not an accessible way out. Ask yourself this: how much does a basketball cost? Not much. How much does a racket, shoes, and balls cost? A lot.
Amongst this current crop of players, the United States does lack a marquee men’s singles player. But in every other area of the game they continue to be a major player. So before you hit the panic switch and declare American Tennis dead, look outside of the big name men’s singles game and see what you find. American tennis is alive and well, but in need of an image makeover.
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