The 100 percent U. S. adjustment at the Australian Open between Taylor Fritz and Reilly Opelka ended in the middle of the night in the US. Usa, which means few people in the house have noticed that their marathon entertained in five sets.
This is new: American men’s tennis has been used during high-time ratings in years.
The last American to win a Andy Roddick Grand Slam tournament at the US Open in 2003, and there’s no indication that the drought will end soon. Fritz, who recovered to beat Opelka in Melbourne on Wednesday, the only American seed when the tournament started, and is 27th.
Only 3 Yankees are ranked among the 50 most sensitive.
“For such a big country, with those resources, it doesn’t make sense,” said coach Rick Macci, who helped expand Roddick, the Williams sisters and protect Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin. “But I don’t see that this is what it is, once again. “
Opelka, for his part, is surprised that the United States has the same number of men seeded in Melbourne as, for example, Bulgaria or Norway.
“It’s just not like a game in the United States,” Opelka said. “It’s just reality. America doesn’t care much about tennis. “
The game enjoyed a higher profile when Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Jim Courier won championships, adding 4 in a row at the Australian Open in the 1990s. But while eastern European and Asian countries have strong, the popularity of the game has declined in the United States, especially among young people who dream instead of winning trophies in the NFL or NBA.
The picture is very bright in women’s tennis. The United States has four most sensible seeded in Melbourne, adding Kenin and Serena Williams. Nine Americans are ranked among the 50 most sensible, adding Coco Gauff, the 16-year-old prodigy.
There’s no Coco Gauff on the men’s side.
“Tennis is a delicious thing on a female athlete’s menu in this country,” Macci said. “It’s something else for men. If I had LeBron James at 10, there’s no doubt in my brain that I could have placed him in the most sensible of the world rankings. “
Macci, who runs a tennis academy in Boca Raton, Florida, questions the design of the US progression program. But it’s not the first time And he said that wonderful long-term athletes can be known when they’re still in elementary school and that recruiting them for tennis would be the most productive thing. on the way to men’s football in the United States.
“If I ran the show, I’d chase the needles into the haystack,” Macci said. “I knew the athletes (running, jumping, pruning, genetics) at 7, 8, nine years old, and then I put them with the coaches.
“Why put cash on an average horse when you put it in a thoroughbred?It’s not that complicated. That’s the only way it’s going to change. “
Hall of Fame member Butch Buchholz has noticed that the landscape has been replaced since he was one of the most productive professionals in the 1960s before starting the tournament now known as the Miami Open in 1985. He agreed that the game could recruit more young talent, especially in the city.
“You have to convince those kids that tennis is a proper game for them,” Buchholz said. “I don’t know if it reached enough intensity to locate the most productive athletes. It’s a challenge because those kids need to play basketball and football. “
The U. S. Tennis Association offers systems downtown in more than 250 locations, but the game’s burden creates a challenge, as does the desire for a quality education for the championship, said Martin Blackman, USTA’s general manager of player progression.
As for looking for needles in the haystack, Blackman said Macci’s ability to assign future 7-year-olds is rare.
“It’s not a strategy. It’s not evolutionary,” Blackman said. ” Moving the dial and attracting better athletes to the game will have to be a programmatic effort. “
THE USTA’s progression program “is the most productive in the world,” Blackman said, and is confident that there will soon be a victory in more sensitive men’s football. He said at least a dozen Americans had leads in most cases. 10 and that the US is not going to be able to do that. The U. S. had 16 boys ranked among the hundred most sensible young men, more than any other country.
For now, the wonderful American hope may be Sebastian Korda, 20, former No. 1 World Cup and son of 1998 Australian Open champion Petr Korda. Another player who could end the Grand Slam drought is the 6-foot 11-inch Opelka. a former Wimbledon junior champion whose dominant serve makes him a risk everywhere.
Opelka (38th), Fritz (31st), Tommy Paul (53rd) and Frances Tiafoe (64th) are 23 years old and are mutually inspired intelligent friends. Fritz said he was convinced that one of them could make his way and win a primary title.
“One hundred percent, ” said Fritz. No I don’t think any of us have reached our full potential. Reilly, Frances and Tommy, especially those three boys, are so far from where they’re going to be, so I think it’s only a matter of time for all of us. . »
Maybe. “You better play the American man,” Elvis Presley sang one day.
But this is an old one.
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Howard Fendrich, editor of AP Tennis, contributed to the report.
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