No longer the superpower

There has been a steady decline in the quality of US men’s tennis

With Andy Roddick falling to number 11, there is no one from the US in the list of the world’s top 10 male tennis players for the first time since ATP rankings began 37 years ago. The muted reaction to this says that everyone thought it was going to happen sooner or later. The declining trend set in about eight years ago, around the time that Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi began to lose their edge players and Switzerland’s Roger Federer began his rise to the top.

In the heyday of American tennis — the years from 1977 to 1981 — there were never less than five Americans in the top 10 in the year-end rankings. At that time, American men embodied more than their mere rank. John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors dominated the game as well as magazine covers. With each on-court altercation that the Super Brat and the Brash Basher got into, their popularity grew.

At present, there are four men from the US in the top 50 and just six in the top 100.

In 1990, nine of the top 25 men were from the US. Now there are a mere three in the top 25 and, of course, all of them are out of the top 10.

The current rankings are dominated by Spain, a country of just 46 million, compared with 310 million for the US (not to forget the well over a billion for India), which has seven men in the top 25.

What’s more, American men are going through their worst Grand Slam title drought in the 41-year history of tennis' Open era, which began in 1968. Roddick, a former world number one, was the last American man to win a grand slam singles title at the US Open in 2003. That was 27 major tournaments ago. The only longer gap between US titles was a 30-Slam gap from 1955 to 1963.

There was a glimmer of hope last year, when Roddick lost to Federer in the Wimbledon final after a marathon fifth set. The American was the better player for most of that match and won many a heart. He appeared to signal a return to the top, but one quarter-final is all he has to show from four subsequent Grand Slams. What’s more, at 28, he is unlikely to get much better as a player.

Roddick is always good on the hard courts. There is a good chance that he may return to top 10 during this American hard court season, which just got underway. But the significance of that return will fail to go beyond the statistical.

The decline of US tennis also shows that money can’t buy trophies. The US Tennis Association spent about $15 million in 2009, which was about 50 per cent more than what it spent the year before. The amount this year may be considerably more, but nearly not enough to address the malaise that has set in. The malaise, mind you, is getting glossed over in the women’s tennis for now. Not for long, though. Venus and Serena, 30 and 29, cannot possibly go on forever.

(suveen.sinha@bsmail.in)