U.S. Men Flame Out at U.S. Open

A couple of weeks ago, I wondered if American tennis was positioning itself to improve, overall, in the grand scheme of things. Instead of having guys win smaller hard court tournaments (like Sam Querrey did in LA) or having guys give gutty performances while still ending up on the short end of the stick (like Andy Roddick did at Wimbledon), I am hoping that American tennis players can get it done on the big stage. So, how do I feel now that we've reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open?

Umm, well, uh, I think, hmm, I'm not sure.

On one hand, it's a telling sign that no American man made the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open for the first time in the history of the tournament. That, in and of itself, is quite a sobering statement. However, if we're all being real, our tennis wagon has been hitched to Andy Roddick ever since Andre Agassi retired, so once John Isner knocked him out in the 3rd round, our hopes were dashed. Isner lost in the 4th round to Spaniard Fernando Verdasco and that was that.

However, a lot of movement was made by American men in the early rounds of the U.S. Open. Roddick, Isner, James Blake, Taylor Dent, Jesse Witten, and Sam Querrey all made the 3rd round of the tournament. That's six players in the round of 32, which isn't bad, all things considered. The problem is that only one of those six advanced to the next round, and none of them advanced to the quarterfinals. Is this a good thing? I say yes. Sure, Roddick should have gone further, but Witten, Querrey, and Isner are all young players who may be able to advance further in the future. Dent was lucky to get that far, to be honest, and Blake is a good player who will always be seeded in the 20s, making his trip to the quarters pretty tough. Regardless, bringing back Roddick, Blake, Isner, and Querrey (and maybe Witten who surprised this year but can't yet be counted on for repeated success) next year should net us a quarterfinalist.

Even still, asking for a quarterfinalist isn't what I'm doing here. I want a semifinalist at worst and a champion at best. There's no reason the United States of America shouldn't produce at least two world-class tennis players at any given time. Yes, the troika of Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, and Jim Courier was a fluke and we'll never be able to produce three top players at once. However, having more than a Roddick bullet in the gun wouldn't hurt. Maybe Isner can use his performance in New York as a springboard to bigger and better things. I've been impressed with the progress made by Querrey, and hope that he can eventually make the move from good player to Top 10 player.

Despite the amount of players in the 3rd round, I would call this year's U.S. Open a failure for American players. One guy in the 4th round and no quarterfinalists is a pretty poor showing. Watching the Open is one of my favorite summer pastimes, but I can only imagine how much better it will be when I have a host of American players to root for along the way.

So, is American tennis getting better? Yes, but it's clearly not good enough.

~~ Lank