American Men's Tennis Woes, Part I: The 'Whys'

Continuing from yesterday's post on the U.S. men's Davis Cup team winning the title, I said that I was going to do two things: 1) explain why the game is in the valley, and 2) what can be done to get back to the mountaintop. Today, I'll give you my opinions on its valley-status. Tomorrow, we'll cover climbing Mt. Everest.

Before I begin, I have excluded the American women from this discussion based solely on the fact that Venus and Serena are holding it down pretty well. They have fans, they win tournaments, and they are single-handedly keeping the American women relevant in tennis. There's an issue, though, of the women coming behind them, but the issues are slightly different for different reasons, so I'll save that discussion for another time.

Just in the way of background, American men's tennis had its heyday in the '70's and '80's, when John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, and Arthur Ashe were at the top of the game and winning their fair share of Grand Slam titles. Since then, there was a sizable blip around Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras, but since those two retired, the Americans have not reached the heights they once did.

As I said yesterday, Roger Federer's dominance has done nothing good for U.S. men's tennis. But there's a problem when one of the richest countries in the world, in resources, technology, facilities -- where almost every foreign player comes to train at some point -- can't produce a serious champion of its own.


So what's the problem? Before I answer that, I want to be clear that this is not an indictment against any of the current top men's players, but is rather about the general state of men's tennis in the United States as a whole. With that out of the way, here are a few of my explanations for this issue:

1. Other sports are taking tennis players. With the dollars being made both on and off the court/field in other sports like football, basketball, and baseball, everyone wants to be LT (1 or 2), Michael Jordan, or A-Rod, the latter standing to make close to $300 million for 10 years of work. By comparison, Roger Federer made $10 million on the court this past year, which was a record-setting amount. Yeah, if I'm an elite male athlete with a choice in the matter, I'm not going with tennis. One American player on the tour is 6'6", and I apologize to him in advance, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that he is probably far, far better in tennis than he is in basketball. Because I don't believe that there is any way that anyone in their right mind would choose to play tennis, which often requires spending at least 45 of the 52 weeks in a year on the road, without a good reason.

Especially when the Americans in these more popular sports are among the best in the world, if not the best. In tennis, that is hardly the case. Roger Federer is an awesome athlete, likely the best athlete from Switzerland, and some might say the best athlete ever, in any sport. And while he has been more fallible lately, he is still virtually untouchable by the American players ranked below him. I bet the American who could be ringing his bell is out playing golf somewhere. I know more than a few people who never picked up a tennis racquet again when Tiger came on the scene. The cream of the crop is not coming out for the tennis team.

For boys in particular, there are so many options in sports, and now tennis has to compete with new professional lacrosse and soccer leagues in addition to the other Big 3 (or 4 - if you count hockey . . . ). Tennis just hasn't kept up with the newer options.

Not to mention that tennis is fairly technical. It's not something you can just go out and start playing if you want to do well without having someone show you what to do (even if it's from a book or magazine . . . but who does that these days?).

American tennis hit a skid in the mid-90's, when Sports Illustrated infamously asked if the sport itself was dying, and the babies born then are now the "next generation of tennis" who never grew up playing tennis or being exposed to it. So, consequently, they don't play it.


2. The USTA isn't really doing "development." For some reason, in many areas in American life, training has fallen by the wayside. No, now we expect people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, know everything when they come in the door, and if they don't, it's their fault, not the people who didn't train them in the first place. Development does not occur. You either come in the door ready, or you're done.

If you're not familiar with the United States Tennis Association (USTA), it is the governing body that controls everything having to do with American tennis, from the amateur to the professional ranks. They run the U.S. Open as well as sanction 12 year old & under tournaments. They also provide training facilities, coaches, and staff for "top" junior (18 and under) players, and provide similar support for top American players on the professional tour. Their mission, they say, is to promote and develop the growth of tennis.

Perhaps the USTA just stopped developing talent. But whether or not the USTA ever did train players, I am going to explain my theory on what happened: Back then, when Connors, McEnroe, and Ashe were coming up, men's tennis was in a different era. The pool of talent was bigger, and the top players that made it through were easy to train because they really were the best of the best. Very little extra work was required to put these players at an elite level, and the U.S. had the top facilities in the world, where players from other countries came to train (more on this later).

Now, the pool is smaller, but the USTA appears to be preferring the ready-made, low-hanging fruit option. Rather than adjusting by, say, going out and recruiting players to play tennis who might be playing other sports, they're taking what comes to them (i.e., who's winning the tournaments). And what comes to them may not always be the cream of the tennis crop.

3. No marketing. At all.

Be honest. You didn't really know that the USTA was before a few moments ago. But it's not your fault. They aren't visible. Tennis is not visible.

Andy Roddick may talk to you about his American Express around U.S. Open time, but he's not telling you to pick up a racquet or making tennis look like something you want to do. Similarly, while it is great that Blake, Roddick, and the Bryan twins (Bob and Mike - tops in men's doubles) participated in the festivities at a Portland Trailblazers game during Davis Cup, I doubt too many folks went out and played tennis the next day. While marketing of the sport itself may not be important in a sport like football or basketball, tennis is not those sports. Because playing tennis is not that popular anymore, promotion of actually playing the sport needs to occur. It's hard when tennis is not seen on TV often enough to register with its target audience (in my experience, tennis courts are in short supply every year when Wimbledon is on TV). When poker seemingly gets more airtime than tennis on ESPN, something is wrong with that picture.

4. Americans don't want it as much. This may be one of the most important - and controversial - factors in why the American men's game is at its nadir. My father has always made a big deal out of being hungry. He has mentioned in a few discussions about American sports in general that parents should take the "creature comforts" from their children if they really want them to be good.

Now, I think that might be a little extreme, but I do believe he has a great point. Kids need to be hungry.
There are a lot of foreign players in college these days. Not just at the big, Division I programs, but everywhere. A lot of people complain about this phenomenon, which has been on-going for many years now, but I think they just want to be there more than Americans do.

Americans, on average, are a fairly comfortable bunch compared to the rest of the world. When it comes to tennis in this country, one of the most expensive sports (perhaps only surpassed by golf), then the vast majority of the participants are people who aren't wanting for much. Here, we are playing tennis because it's fun and we like it, or we're just good at it, and we're competitive.

Now, take your average top player from another country. They are growing up in an entirely different system than we have here. They probably started playing tennis earlier. Tennis pays a lot more than their other sporting and "normal" options, and so they may be playing tennis to make a way for their family. Not only that, but they have a large talent pool of players trying to do the exact same thing, so they represent the best athletes in their country, not just the best tennis players. For many, tennis represents a way out for them and may be the only way that seems within their grasp. When you come from less and have more on the line, your performance is going to take on a different level of significance, I don't care who you are.

Now, we bring these two types of players into the same competitive environment. The American player, who will just drive his nice car to his nice condo if he loses vs. the non-American player who may not be able to afford a plane ticket home. True story.

The bottom line is that American men -- and women -- just aren't as hungry as their non-American counterparts. They simply have too many options available to them in terms of other activities, and including living a life as or more comfortable than they would if they never picked up a tennis racquet. I don't exclude myself from this category, either. Had my options been more limited or I really wanted to make a run on the tour, I think I would be in a totally different place than I am right now. So I am not suggesting that it's necessarily a bad thing that we're not as hungry, but I do believe that it is affecting the quality of the game.

Having different levels of motivation simply cannot be underestimated. (I avoided making a "no match for . . . " pun here. You can thank me later).

So what can be done to reverse the course in light of the above? Stay tuned for tomorrow's post where I will give my Top 10 suggestions on fixing this quagmire.