JOHN ISNER, SAM QUERREY, JACK SOCK, DONALD YOUNG, STEVE JOHNSON AND JARED DONALDSON
Surely you remember when men’s American tennis was a big deal.
Before Connors, McEnroe and Courier there was Arthur Ashe.
Before Ashe there was Don Budge (1938-’55), Jack Kramer (1947-’54), Frank Parker (1949-’71), Pancho Gonzalez (1949-’74) and Tony Trabert (1955-’63).
And before them, Bill Tilden, “Big Bill” (1931-’46) and Bill Johnston, “Little Bill” (1913-’28).
Of course, wresting the spotlight from Jimmy, “The Brat” and the orange-headed Courier after their luminous playing days finally wrapped was Pete Sampras and contemporary Andre Agassi and to a much lesser extent Michael Chang, the youngest male player ever to win a Grand Slam singles title (1989 French Open vs. Ivan Lendl at age 17 years; 104 days).
Picking up their very large footprints was Andy Roddick.
Post-Roddick?
Since his breakthrough 2003 U.S. Open championship at 21, the Big Four of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have won 34 of the 37 Grand Slam titles.
Roddick was the last American man to win a Grand Slam singles title; Andre Agassi won the Australian Open earlier that year.
An American male has not been ranked №1 in the tennis world since February, 2004 (Roddick) — coincidental to the dawn of the Federer regime.
And since 2007 only three American men — -Roddick, Mardy Fish and John Isner have even reached the quarter-finals of the U.S. Open.
At this writing four Americans find themselves in the Men’s ATP Singles Rankings Top 30: Isner @ #21; Steve Johnson @ #22; Jack Sock @ #27; and Sam Querrey @ #30.
Taylor Fritz checks in @ #53; and Donald Young @ #56, completing American representation in the Top 100.
Hypotheses abound.
The worldwide explosion of the game’s popularity made it better.
The appeal of other less expensive sports to American boys — it is estimated that the cost of training an elite-bound tennis candidate from the age of 5 to 18 is $400,000 — dramatically depletes the talent pool.
Hanging on to the traditional American style and strategic mentality of ending points quickly has backfired in an era of vastly improved service returns, defensive skills and stamina levels.
To be an American champion no longer holds the historical allure it once did; to wit, compare the colorful personalities of Connors, McEnroe and Agassi with that of Sampras, one of the greatest players ever and classy but vanilla.
In an individual sport, the personality thing carries a ton of weight.
Courier who won four Grand Slam titles in the early ’90s and was ranked #1 in the world at 22 years of age summarily and somewhat vehemently rejects the notion that someone or something is to blame for the lack of American men’s success.
He finds this line of thought a bit self-serving.
“America has no ownership of the top ranking,” he espouses. “It’s a free-for-all…Tennis is a very individual sport and I think it’d be very naive for a country to take credit for individual players…In the tennis landscape, you look at the Williams sisters. [Not unlike Tiger Woods’ late father Earl, he muses] Their father was a big driver, my family was a big driver, so I don’t think we can put any blame on anyone.”
Then there is the tired but no less on-point theory that other sports-related diversions, in both the playing and viewing arenas, are contributory factors in today’s world.
It is painfully well-documented that kids spend far too much time — by the standards set by we over fifty(?) — in front of any screen large or small.
John Isner himself concedes that “tennis is the sport I watch least…I might put the Wimbledon final on TV, but I’m not focussed (sic) on it. N.F.L., college football: that’s another thing. I breathe that stuff. The N.H.L., too. And the N.B.A. I play fantasy baseball. I’m a really big fan of the W.W.E….”
Perhaps Isner gets his fill of tennis on the practice courts and in matches.
But if he’s not watching too much, then what about the average guy or gal?
Yet with all of this in mind it is Isner’s considered opinion that “American tennis is trending up. There’s a half dozen seventeen-to-eighteen-year-olds right now that are arguably the most talented group American tennis has ever had. Let’s see what they can do.”
Displaying the confidence befitting a player of his stature (6’10”) and position in the game he then quipped, “Let’s see if they can get past me.”
An astute authority, the candid if no longer wildly outspoken bull-in-a-china-shop McEnroe asserts that due to the “great run” of collective American success in his era, “we got spoiled and kept expecting it would keep happening.”
He is absolutely right.
Connors’ resume includes 268 weeks at №1 including 160 consecutive weeks; McEnroe won four U.S. Opens and three Wimbledon titles from 1979-’84; and Courier (as noted) was the World №1 (in ’92 & ’93) and won 23 singles titles and 6 more in doubles along with reaching the finals of all four majors, a claim which only 7 other players in the Open Era could make.
At the end of June while covering an on-going Wimbledon for Tennis.com, Nina Pantic could hardly contain herself as no fewer than 5 American men advanced on Day 4 of the hallowed tournament.
Sam Querrey, Jack Sock and Steve Johnson moved into Round 3 while Isner and Donald Young had punched their Round 2 tickets.
Respective final results were really beside the point although Querrey upset World #1 Djokovic to secure his spot in Round 4.
As Isner the pontificator observed, “I think us, as a country, we have sort of turned the corner…I think there [are] a lot of players doing very good things…We’re certainly on the up, in my opinion…it will come.”
And that my friends is the point.
Life works cyclically. Including even the vagaries of tennis.
And we were and perhaps still are spoiled.
So let’s salute the world’s top players of today while we support our young wave of American competitors and the next wave and then the next.
Chances are American men will scale the heights once again.
[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in September 2016.]
ADDENDUM:
In the ESPN 2020 Men’s Tennis ATP Rankings of 150, John Isner is the top American @ #22 followed by Taylor Fritz @ #25, Reilly Opelka @ #35, Sam Querrey @ #45, Tennys Sandgren @ #48, Tommy Paul @ #58, Steve Johnson @ #64, Frances Tiafoe @ #82, Marcos Giron @ #96, Denis Kudla @ #111, Jason Jung @ #122, Bradley Klahn @ #129 and Jeffrey John Wolf @ #138.
Isner is 35; Fritz is 22; Opelka 23; Querrey 32; Sandgren 29; Paul 23; Johnson 30; Tiafoe 22; Giron 27; Kudla 28; Jung 34; Klahn 30; and Wolf 21.
