The United States has gone 29 Grand Slam events without celebrating a men’s champion and the French Open, which starts on Sunday, is unlikely to break that streak. Andre Agassi was the last American to win the men’s crown at Roland Garros in 1999 and Agassi was the last US player to get as far as the quarter-finals in 2003.
Since then, the mantle has passed to Andy Roddick, his country’s last major winner when he lifted the 2003 US Open. But Roddick, currently struggling with a right shoulder injury and who has never got beyond the fourth round in nine visits, on Thursday pulled out of the tournament, preferring to concentrate on Wimbledon where he has been runner-up three times. Roddick is not even the national number one anymore, having been supplanted by close friend Mardy Fish, whose Roland Garros best is a second round spot.
These are dark days for American tennis.
Just a week ago, there was no US man or woman in the world’s top 10 for the first time since the ranking system was introduced almost 40 years ago. Serena Williams, the last American Roland Garros women’s winner in 2002, is absent this year through injury as is sister Venus. America’s top player in the women’s draw will be Bethanie Mattek-Sands, the world 36. But the 26-year-old’s best performance in Paris is two second round showings in 2008 and 2010.
However, Roger Federer, who along with Rafael Nadal has carved up 24 of the 29 majors since Roddick’s 2003 US Open win, believes the Americans should not be written off. “There are not that many teenagers in the top 100 so I think many countries are going through a phase where they do not have the talent they hoped to have,” said the Swiss. “Even in France, Germany, England or America, all those countries are struggling and waiting for an up and coming player like we always hope for like Rafa (Nadal), Novak (Djokovic) and myself, or (Andy) Roddick or (Michael) Chang.
“This is kind of missing at the moment and those countries have to be patient and this creates a lot of pressure on the people working in the federations and the media, especially in the bigger countries like America.” Patrick McEnroe, the former Davis Cup skipper who now runs the United States Tennis Assocation’s player development programme, believes the US can learn from the success of European players on clay courts.
“Spain has a very systematic approach to how they teach kids, when it comes to margin of error, when to attack, when to defend,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
