Golden Age

I will be the first to say that the handling of tennis in th United States has at times bordered on being criminally negligent.  From 1989-2002 one generation of US born players won at least one Grand Slam title per year.  In 2003, Andy Roddick extended the streak by one more year.  Did tennis find a good way to market this success and grow the sport?  Anecdotally, I’d say a huge opportunity was squandered.  That is however the topic for a future column.

Wave the Flag

At present the US Open is entering the round of 16 on the men’s side and 25% of the players are US born.  I have never been particularly jingoistic in following tennis.  I figure it is an individual sport so a player’s style of attack and on court demeanor are more important to my rooting interests than a player’s place of birth or first language.  Still, the US is a huge market and if tennis garners more interest within the US it is good for the sport on a whole.

US Open Second Week

• The top ranked US born player Mardy Fish has enjoyed a late career surge.  He followed up a 4 set Wimbledon quarterfinal loss to Rafael Nadal with a win in Atlanta, runner-up finishes in Montreal and Los Angeles and a semifinal appearance in Cincinnati highlighted by a win over Nadal.  Fish will compete in what looks to be the best round of 16 match with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.  Tsonga was a runner-up at The Queen’s Club, a semifinalist at Wimbledon and Montreal.  The powerful French player has also won his past 3 encounters with Federer and Nadal.  I give Fish a 55% of advancing because I think Tsonga showed some weakness in his Montreal midmatch retirement versus Novak Djokovic.
• Andy Roddick is a slight underdog versus David Ferrer.  Based on form, I’d make Ferrer a solid favorite, but a hard court match in New York gives Roddick a home court advantage.  For moreof my thoughts on Roddick’s chances look here.
• Big John Isner has had a nice season winning in Newport and North Carolina and finishing as the runner-up in Atlanta.  He will have to hit a lot of aces and service winners to defeat Gilles Simon.  Simon ground down Juan Martin del Potro who has a much better ground game than Isner.  My guess is Isner’s nice hard court season ends vs. Simon.
• Donald Young beat Andy Murray at Indian Wells earlier this year.  If Murray is ready to play and confident, Young’s Open ends in the round of 16, but with Murray we’ve grown accustomed to strange lapses.  The strategy of hoping for a lapse is not particularly good, but I am afraid it is Young’s most likely path to victory.  Still, this event along with his showing in DC have given Young a lot to look forward to in the fall and throughout 2012.

Other US Players to Watch

• Ryan Harrison has earned Darren Cahill’s praise.
• Jack Sock’s tactics need some work, but he has weapons and swagger.
• Denis Kudla played well in Newport.
• Ryan Sweeting is in the top 100.
• James Blake and Robby Ginepri seem to have stabilized and at least rebounded a bit from their downward trends.

Depth 

The importance of this depth at majors is that one or more of these players may get a soft draw and  capture some of the public imagination.  I am not expecting a group of US players to duplicate what Sampras, Agassi, Courier, Chang, Todd Martin, Mal Washington and David Wheaton accomplished.  However, a deep field of solid players mixed with a few super talented guys bodes well for US tennis in the next few years.