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By Franklin L. Johnson
© Natasha Peterson/Corleve

(August 13, 2010) As America goes green, American tennis goes green with envy.

These are some bleak, bruising days for American tennis on the US Open Series blue hard courts. The North American hard court season is traditionally this nation's time to shine in the tennis sun, yet look around and you see us overshadowed by Spain, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Serbia, smaller nations who seem to be smarter than us when it comes to player development.

Sure, fans of American tennis can take pride in the fact Sam Querrey has collected four tournament titles, second only to World No. 1 Rafael Nadal's five championships this season; a streamlined Mardy Fish beat John Isner in the all-American Atlanta final that launched the US Open Series, Andy Roddick, who beat Tomas Berdych and Nadal back-to-back to win Miami in April is too good, too tough and too experienced not to eventually bounce back from whatever ails him now; and twins Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan made tennis history in winning their record 62nd doubles championship in Los Angeles to take sole possession of tennis' tandem record.

Veterns Taylor Dent and Michael Russell are ranked in the top 85 and Donald Young and James Blake are on the verge of cracking the top 100.

So what's wrong with this picture, you might ask?

For the first time in the history of the ATP Tour computer rankings, which began in 1973, no American man is ranked among the world's top 10.

Aside from Serena, Venus and the Bryan boys, the harsh reality is our nation does not matter in majors anymore.



Acknowledge the achievement of Melanie Oudin, Liezel Huber, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and captain Mary Joe Fernandez in taking the U.S. Fed Cup team back to the final for a second straight year. Vania King deserves major credit for winning the Wimbledon doubles title last month and Oudin showed that feisty fighting spirit in reaching the US Open quarterfinals last year, but do you really think the undersized teen with the huge heart and the belief in her heels has another second-week run in her this time around?

Now, you can shrug that off as apocalyptic poppy cock and point to the 11th-ranked Roddick and 19th-ranked Isner as capable of cracking the top 10 along with World No. 21 Querrey, who believes American men are on the brink of a bounce-back breakthrough.

"I think after the US Open we could have four guys in the top 20, which we wouldn't have had in a long time," Querrey said after he lost to Kevin Anderson at the Rogers Cup. "Andy is ranked 11, but with a great tournament next week (Cincinnati), he can squeak back in. I don't feel any extra pressure, I don't think any of the guys do. We want to be ranked as high as we can, we want to be in the top 10. We can only do so much, and hopefully we'll get there soon."

Sam's sentiments aside, let's be honest: we're getting our collective clock cleaned in this great global game and while we are getting worse our leaders are getting better — at spin. So many people in this country are so busy serving up the "tennis is cyclical" spin job, they seem to forget the first measure to solving a problem is admitting you have a problem.

As I wrote in the American Anthem Needs New Tune column: inspiration and apathy can come from the top down.

I find it odd that so many nations are taking their decline in stride, like it's some kind of a good thing. Listen closely and hear the bureaucrats recycle the tired old "tennis is cyclical...." "champions come in cycles...." spin. When they start spinning the cyclical cycle alibi on you then you know they're taking decline in stride.

I don't know about you, but I don't like the idea of being buried before my time is up. Except for the Williams sisters and A-Rod, who have we got?

I will tell you we have a great untapped, invaluable natural resource in this nation that the USTA continues to ignore: our great past champions. And you don't have to look far to find them: Martina Navratilova, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Lindsay Davenport are all former World No. 1 Grand Slam champions who cover tournaments in their roles as tennis television analysts. Is the USTA, which makes more than $100 million annually from the US Open, reaching out to these champions? If so, how? If not, why not?

You may counter that being a Grand Slam champion doesn't mean you can help mentor or mold a future champion.

Really?

If you need medical attention, seek a doctor, and the pro game in America, aside from the aforementioned champions, is in critical condition whether the USTA admits it or not so to ignore our champions and other great former players is absurd, but absurdity seems to be the American way when it comes to play development.

I've been saying for decades: the USTA doesn't make use of its former champs the way they should.

Rafael Nadal was interviewed recently and pointed out the respect he has for former Spanish Wimbledon winner Manolo Santana. How come Spain can figure out how to bridge the generation gap between its past and present and future champions and we can't?

I've written them on several occasions these great stars should be wandering the grounds at the Open. They should have a tent where they could have forums and informal talks about their careers and their thoughts on the game and where it's going or should go.

Here's the great unspoken crime of American tennis: Jennifer Capriati shouldn't be scraping herself of the wall of a hospital ward. She should be out on a court in south Florida working with our next wave of champions if that aim interests her.

Yet the powers that be in American tennis utterly discard Jennifer as if she had nothing more to offer the game. She needed to be wanted and no one did. So, she took the desperate road.



This is an outrage of the highest order and responsibility for her sad state rests, in part, with the USTA and the game's governing bodies.

When are we going to have frank discussions with many avid fans about this wonderful sport and what we can do to make it better? We have the most educated fans in the world, but nothing is done to bring their intelligence and ideas to bear on the problems confronting tennis as the USTA operates as if it's a tennis CIA.

It's so obvious the USTA has done so little to foster the development of young tennis talent, you wonder why this body has yet to get it? While they fiddle on about increasing prize money at the Open, our nation's competitive future goes up in flames and no one wants to acknowledge the smoke let alone the fire. What do we have to do to bring attention to these serious matters? I've handed out fliers at the US Open about these problems. I've mailed the USTA and assailed them with little to show for my efforts.

I'm sure we can do something about the sorry story of US tennis. One way to start is to integrate our former champions and top players, including Brad Gilbert and Todd Martin, into our player development.

Americans understand the importance of the recycling efforts as the nation goes green.

Sadly the USTA's concept of going green simply means trying to squeeze more cash out of its ATM Machine that is the US Open and our country continues to pick up the tab as we slip into irrelevancy on tennis' global stage.


Tennis Now contributing writer Franklin L. Johnson is a writer, poet and avid tennis player based in New York. He has covered professional tennis for three decades. His recent columns include The GOAT Game Changer,  What Do Roger Federer and Andy Murray's Coaching Changes Mean? American Anthem Needs New Tune, Tomas Berdych Played Tame Final and A Case For Vera.