Time for US fans to look past the figures

Sports pundits across the United States have been armed with the most fearsome of weapons in any sporting debate. A stat.

“The bedrock of nearly every bar argument you could conceive is a battle between what you can see and what the numbers say,” explains ESPN’s Chris Sprow about the American sports fan’s love of number-crunching. Baseball, basketball, ice hockey and American football: all can be boiled down to percentages and algorithms for every pass, hit, rebound – far beyond the basics of simply the score that the rest of the world seems content with.

One such stat – one globally recognised as a marker for tennis excellence – currently makes for sorry reading among US tennis fans. Since the ATP computer ranking system was introduced in 1973, at least one American player has figured in the world’s top 10 – a span of almost four decades. That streak ended when Andy Roddick, the US No.1, slipped from No.9 to No.11 on Monday.

And with that the concerns surrounding the future and apparent decline of US men’s tennis, amplified as the game parks itself stateside for these two months of the year, has been brought sharply into focus. While no one can ask more of Andy Roddick for his decade of service both to tennis and to representing his country, the slip has exposed the slide of American talent from the game’s upper tier.

Apart from a four-week spell in the middle of 2006, Roddick has been a permanent fixture in the ATP top 10 for nearly eight years. His 2003 US Open victory, which propelled him to world No.1 status soon after, set his status as the flag-bearer for US men’s tennis following the heady days of the 1990s. “The pressure to carry the banner has been there since I was 18 years old,” he said last week, following his early exit at the Legg Mason Tennis Championships. “That's something I have dealt with for a long time.”

In recent times, however, it is a pressure he has had to deal with in isolation. James Blake flew the US flag during Roddick’s brief absence from the single digits back in ’06 and reached a career-best spot of No.4 in the world that same season, but age and injury have gradually eased the New Yorker outside of the world’s top 100 this year. Mardy Fish came into Washington following of back-to-back tournament wins in Newport and Atlanta that pushed him back inside the top 50, but the 28-year-old has never gone higher than No.17 in the rankings – and that peak came in 2004. Robby Ginepri, the only active American man other than Roddick to reach a Grand Slam semi-final – at the 2005 US Open – is currently No.118 in the world.

Sam Querrey and John Isner must be tiring of the ‘emerging talents’ moniker – both men are in their twenties and embedded in the top 25 following steady rises up the rankings – but American eyes are turning to the duo to receive the baton from Roddick and fight their way into the top ten. Taylor Dent and Michael Russell, at No.81 and No.82, bring the number of Americans currently in the top 100 to six.

Patrick McEnroe, general manager of player development for the USTA, admits that they “knew this was coming” – and is adamant that the steps to redress the lack of men’s talent at the sharp end of the rankings have already been set in motion.

“It's a big thing to say, ‘Look, there's no American in the top 10.’ That's certainly not something I take lightly,” admits the US Davis Cup captain “But it's not that surprising when you look at the way the game has changed and the global nature of the game. Players are coming from all over the world,” he added. “We saw the writing on the wall that this was trending in this direction.”

Events in Washington illustrated the point in some style. For the first time since 1969, no American player reached the last eight. Instead, the quarterfinalists were from Argentina, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Serbia and Spain.

“My bell rang a long time ago,” continued McEnroe, the US Davis Cup captain, “and the USTA knew it was coming. That's why they have put more money into player development. They realise that for the continued success of the US Open, and continued success of television deals, and continued success of growing the game, it's important to have our players at the top of the game.”

Justin Gimelstob, a former US pro now working as a commentator for the Tennis Channel, emphasises the importance of an American idol to put bums on seats in one of the sport’s most important territories. In addition to the US Open, there will be 12 ATP tournaments played on US soil this year, including three of the nine Masters 1000 events at Indian Wells, Miami and next week in Cincinnati.

“It is important to have recognisable star figures in the sport,” he said. “The American public is conditioned to want to, and be able to, see their compatriots playing. That's a legitimate concern.

“It's easy to look at it from a negative perspective," he said, "but the reality is tennis has become a much more international sport. We got spoiled in the previous generation when tennis was incredibly successful in America. I still believe tennis is very viable and successful in America.”

In Gimelstob’s eyes, ‘concern’ for the state of the sport in the States is too strong a word. “Is there some cause for taking a closer look and some nervousness? Sure – but I believe it's more a reflection of where tennis is: global.”

“I am sure plenty of people will get worked up about this, but not me,” said Jim Courier, a former world No.1 and a member of what is now regularly referred to as the last ‘golden generation’ of US men, along with likes of Michael Chang, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, that emerged in the 1990s. “I can't seem to recall an article that mentioned how remarkable the ongoing US top 10 presence was in the past few years but I am also not surprised that the lack of a top 10 player will now get ink.

“Let's not use this as a convenient time to bash the USTA for ‘dropping a ball’ since they can't be expected to create champions,'' he added. “Their job is to try to encourage more people to start their kids playing tennis as well as nurture the good players once identified and they are hard at work doing that with a talented group of coaches and executives.”

And, as Courier points out, it is a little early to put Roddick out to pasture just yet, especially with back-to-back Masters 1000 events to claw some points back from. “The game is deep with global talent but the US will have a top 10 presence again, probably within a few weeks.”