American Tennis - Can It Recover?

America. You can't deny it's influence on the sporting stage. Be it the Olympics both Winter and Summer, Golf and Tennis. Football (soccer) not so much, but the rest of global sports they are there or thereabouts.

You think tennis and the greats they have produced. They have always had a conveyer belt of talent coming through. The 10's have been tough on them. Apart from the Bryans and Serena Williams, there hasn't been much to shout about. Look at the Slam stats for single champions over the decades. I have discounted the ones won by players who switched nationality.

70's - 25 won out of 80 - 31.25%
80's - 21 won out of 80 - 26.25%
90's - 25 won out of 80 - 31.25%
00's - 27 won out of 80 - 33.75%

The 10's. Different story. 7 Slams won and all from the same player. Quite alarming one would say. Now let's look at Davis/Fed Cup success.

70's - 9 wins out of 20 - 45%
80's - 7 wins out of 20 - 35%
90's - 6 wins out of 20 - 30%
00's - 2 wins out of 20 - 10%

As you can see no success in the 10's in team success. The last Fed Cup success was 2000 and the last Davis Cup sucess was 2007.

I would've done the number 1 ranking stats, though the weeks and breaking them down is hard to find a source that breaks it down.

2013 was the first year no American Male featured in the top 10 and 2015 looks certain to repeat that feat. 2011 was the last time an American Male featured at the WTF. Sock/Johnson/Young could carry the fight, but who knows.

Serena is currently world number 1 on the WTA side, but age is creeping up on her and Venus. Can Keys and Stephens take on the mantle when they finish?

Can America become a tennis super power again?

Good question. You'd think that with it's huge population more potentially great players would be out there. Maybe it's just a matter of time, although success tends to breed success, so it's more difficult if there is no-one currently up there to inspire them.
It may also be more difficult competing with the other, more 'American' sports although differences in physique would rule out many potential tennis players moving to e.g. basketball or American football.
Does anyone know how the American colleges/universities are treating tennis these days? Much of the success in the 'old days' relied on the college system. Is the USTA suffering the same sort of mismanagement problems as the LTA?

I was wondering that myself JHM. Maybe socal/SB or LF could provide insight to the college system. When you look at Isner. Wasn't he like 14 or something when he started playing tennis because he couldn't make the grade in basketball?

Thing is when you look at sport in the US NFL must be the holy grail for youngsters giving the whopping paycheques. They could earn more in a year in NFL than a whole career on the tennis scene, the same with Basketball. Not sure the wage structure for NHL and MLB.

Maybe they don't have the passionate tennis fans like from the old generation when you look at Connors and Agassi's parents. Die hard tennis fans.

I don't get the stats. Are the slam figures WTA only? If not, should each total be out of 80?

On the overall point, there are still a lot of US players but most of them seem rather formulaic. I can't think of one with real flair. Is that being coached out of them through the grind of the college system?

Born Slippy wrote:I don't get the stats. Are the slam figures WTA only? If not, should each total be out of 80?

On the overall point, there are still a lot of US players but most of them seem rather formulaic. I can't think of one with real flair. Is that being coached out of them through the grind of the college system?

Well spotted. I did mean 80. It's both Mens and Womens. I will adjust.

Thanks for poiting that out.

I blame golf.  It's more popular and it's worth so much more money.

temporary21 wrote:I blame golf.  It's more popular and it's worth so much more money.

To be fair, the Americans aren't exactly doing all that well at golf either at the moment. IIRC just before the Ryder Cup none of the top 5 in the world were American (4 Europeans, one Australian). OK it's still better in absolute terms than tennis, but compared to where they normally rank it's not particularly great...

temporary21 wrote:I blame golf.  It's more popular and it's worth so much more money.

I blame the more Americanised sports than I would Golf.

The big four US sports definitely suck talent away from other sports, same as football does here in the UK. The money is a huge factor. Track & field has the same issue as tennis out there, I believe - talented athletes being wooed away by the dough.

Then again, the NFL and others have been popular for a long time now and US tennis never had an issue churning out the winners before. I wonder what's changed? College system is a good shout from JHM, perhaps.

Edit: So it was, thank you. I saw your post first!

It was JHM who referenced the college system.

I do wonder if they are having problems with youngsters enrolling. Maybe participation numbers have dropped?

Like you say the megabucks sports will divert all the talent from 'lesser' lucrative sports.

I don't care. What does it matter what country a player is born in?

Well, ermmmmm thanks for that insight

For a country that has produced some ATG, I think the question should be asked.

Don't like it? Don't comment.

HE, of course it does, get born in Romania, would be a little less convenient for a tennis talent to develop then say in UK or USA.

More options, infrastructure etc in developed countries, and you wont need a Gulbis daddy to finance you so much.

on the topic, a part of me can't help feel that Americans just don't much like losing, in anything (obviously no one does really, but...).

As they win less, they become less interested, and turn to sports where, well, they can't lose

Don't know much about the situation but I noticed if you go in a bar or walk through an airport in the US when a masters series 1000 event is on it will not be on TV. Some random basketball game or something will be on instead. Most US sports fans only care about the US Open and Wimbledon, everything else is really off the radar. Of course, you could probably say the same about many other countries, it is hard to think of a country where tennis is the no 1 sport.

So my guess would be that the US is just in a lull and things will improve at some point in the future, 5, 10 or 20 years from now maybe will have 2-3 top tenners again and one of those 1st or 2nd. Of the developing countries where people are rich enough to play tennis, have facilities etc, it's by far the country with the biggest population to chose from.

Personally I don't really care if they do badly at tennis. It's a very powerful country in military, politics, science, technology and other sports (eg golf, Olympic events). Don't want to see them dominating everything. Nice to see a little or middling sized country like Serbia at the top to be honest.

Mad for Chelsea wrote:on the topic, a part of me can't help feel that Americans just don't much like losing, in anything (obviously no one does really, but...).

As they win less, they become less interested, and turn to sports where, well, they can't lose

I think that's culture of any country and sport. One they dominate and it stops.

I do wonder if the USTA are having the same difficulties as say our beloved organisation the LTA and whether attracting new blood is becoming very difficult.

Well, UK ain't doing any better. All the money poured, this and that, only Andy around, others just nowhere to be seen.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/baseball/30092995

I can see why kids wouldn't pick tennis if your paid this much to whack a ball!

Interestingly Federer made £35m this year. £33m of that was endorsements!

A-Rod was on a 10-year $275m deal a few years ago. It's quite remarkable how viewership is down, attendance is down, but player wages are at an all time high in baseball.

Be interested to see the get out clause if he starts sandbagging!

I saw Jack sock in the doubles final at Wimbledon. He looked a decent enough power player. Why isn't he doing better in singles?

Tennis simply losing out to the marque sports in US now...as is athletics. Talented sports kids have a much better chance of earning a decent living in many other pro sports than tennis...it's the same in many other countries too. The ones doing the best now heavily subsidise and support the juniors. Don't get me started on the LTA...

Hopefully lydian the Brett effect will take hold and the system can improve.

Hopefully being the operative word. No changes to the junior system yet which is the place to effect change. The country needs 20-30 more indoor tennis centres for a start...which could gave been done easily rather than the £40m Roehampton white elephant. Let's see.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Roehampton. If they sell the site, will the funds from of be re-directed to districts that are producing the promising juniors?

Like you I am sceptical.

Yes I doubt it. The issue is structural, procedural, resources, high cost of entry, no schools interest and a few other factors. Not sure what effect putting Brett in at the top, with the faceless Canadian guy, will have when the issues run far and deep.

If you had taken the big 3 out of the agenda for the last ten years, we may have seen more yanks up there, but......

"This year, unlike the last 132 years, no American man advanced past the third round of his home slam. At the other three majors in 2013, the results were just as bleak. No men from the States reached the third round at Wimbledon, the first time that’s happened in 101 years. And only one made it to the third round at the Aussie Open (Sam Querrey) and the French (John Isner)"

Many critics point to the United States Tennis Association lack of real investment in juniors and coaching staff and its an easy thing to do, but they do have a successful Womens side, LTA and British talent ring bells anyone ?

We had the same problem for almost 75 years but the Americans can at least see what is wrong and what they can do about it...

"No matter the strategy, player development in the U.S. will fail without successful outreach: getting more young Americans playing tennis, and getting them passionate about the game. The hope is that sheer numbers will translate to more kids becoming top-flight tennis players."

Something the LTA need to revamp and restructure if we are ever to produce another Murray, but Tennis in general is far more appealing world wise with China investing millions of yen and other far eastern countries producing talent, the opportunities for young Americans is always going to be more difficult now. The talent pool if expanding exponentially atm and within that pool there is ultimately going to be more competition.

IMMHO, Roehampton is a ghost and has been mismanaged for years, a little like the White Collar gravy train, but its a fantastic place and could be THE centre to enhance any future British hopeful with modern facilities and coaching.

I'd rather see an "Under New Management" than a "For Sale" sign.