Ny Daily News Article: American Tennis Has A Bleak Future No Young Stars Emerging After Roddick & Williams Sisters.
With U.S. Open on tap, future of American tennis looks blight
With U.S. Open on tap, future of American tennis looks blight
Monday, August 30th 2010, 4:00 AM
Andy Roddick and Venus Williams (below) have won zero major titles in the past two years.
Melanie Oudin has fallen to No. 43 in the world after her stellar showing in the 2009 U.S. Open.
They hate talking about it. But this is the U.S. – as in United States – Open that starts Monday at Flushing Meadows. If we don’t ask the players now, we are not performing our patriotic duty.
So yet again, and certainly not for the last time: Why do Americans suddenly stink at tennis? Or, somewhat more diplomatically, why do we no longer dominate and destroy the rest of the world, as is our birthright?
The players bristle, denying we’ve misplaced our groove. Yet there is no American under 28 years old who owns even a remote shot at an Open singles title, and the juniors pipeline promises little better than solid, second-tier careers.
“You can basically make the stats say whatever you want to,” says Andy Roddick, ranked No. 9 in the world. “Just ask a statistician.”
We don’t ask the statisticians. We ask Roddick and other players what is wrong, and mostly we hear that tennis is now a global sport, and that we were spoiled rotten in the past.
But nearly two decades since Serena and Venus arose, almost mythically, from those cracked courts in Compton, where is that one young guy, one woman, who knows how to smash a forehand down the line with cruel accuracy?
The problem may just be a lack of proper nurturing. There is much new evidence – and the Williams sisters are fine examples of this – that kids achieve greater expertise at sports like soccer and tennis through practice and drills, not through a slew of one-sided tournament matches.
“I don’t think the junior system is the greatest,” James Blake says. “Kids still need to be kids, and they are having a tough time being kids right now. They play a lot of tournaments – too many tournaments. I see them when I’m in the training room, 13-year-olds coming in there with overuse injuries, and I’m thinking, ‘I didn’t even know what overuse was when I was 13 years old.'”
Here are the cold, hard rankings: After Roddick at No. 9 in the world, John Isner, Mardy Fish and Sam Querrey are 20 through 22 in the ATP rankings. Following them, Taylor Dent is No. 70.
Isner is 25 years old, Fish is 28. Only Querrey, 22, has upside growth. Also, there is just one U.S. boy, Frank Mitchell, ranked among the top 25 ITF Juniors. Mitchell is 17 years old, ranked No. 17.
Serena and Venus Williams remain No.1 and 4 in the WTA rankings. After them, the abyss: Melanie Oudin has fallen to No. 43, then Vania King at 74. There are two American girls in the ITF Junior Top 25: Beatrice Capra, 18, is ranked 14th; more promising is Lauren Davis, 16, ranked No.16.
at any meaningful level, is ranked in the Top 10 other than the usual, aging suspects: the Williams sisters and Roddick.
Together, Roddick and Venus Williams have won exactly zero major titles in the past two years. Both have battled health or injury problems this season. Yet without Serena Williams in the draw, Venus and Roddick represent the only chance, really, at this Open against the greedy, grasping Swiss, Belgians, Danes, Spaniards and Russians.
Roddick opens Monday against Stephane Robert of France. Venus plays Roberta Vinci of Italy tonight. They should move on easily. They’d better. There is no backup. The weight of a once-mighty tennis nation rests on two pairs of shoulders.
“I didn’t really feel much of a responsibility to be the guy in the top 10,” says Roddick, who recently fought through a case of mononucleosis. “I figure that should fall maybe on some of the guys that have never been in the top 10.
“All the numbers that are being reported as far as apparel sales, participation, TV ratings, this, that, and the other, are up,” Roddick says. “So I have a hard time dealing with the question that says, ‘What’s wrong?'”
Yes, we know. The euro talks as loudly as the dollar. We should enjoy Roger Federer‘s angled forehands, Rafael Nadal‘s diving saves. And for now, we’re willing to do that, only because Roddick is still knocking 140mph serves and the Williams sisters occasionally win majors.
But time is running out on tennis around here, whether or not anybody wants to admit as much. People will always come to the Open, a special event. The TV ratings, however, are certain to shrink, as long as we stink.
All we can do is buy some time at Flushing Meadows, starting Monday with Roddick and Williams. Late autumn for tennis here, in late summer.
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