US Open: Grand Slam drought haunts American men

Roddick won the country’s last major title in 2003

NEW YORK: Not since Andy Roddick’s 2003 US Open victory has an American man captured a Grand Slam title, a drought of 47 events entering the US Open that starts Monday.

A legendary US generation led by 14-time Grand Slam winner Pete Sampras and eight-time major champion Andre Agassi failed to produce a similar legacy, with Swiss icon Roger Federer and Spain’s Rafael Nadal seizing command of men’s tennis.

Sampras won his last major at the 2002 US Open and Agassi’s final Slam trophy was hoisted at the 2003 Australian Open. Then came Roddick at the 2003 US Open, a win that helped him to world number one until February of 2004.

Since then, no US man has held the top spot. And since 2011, there have been no Americans in the year-end ATP top 10, the last such man being Mardy Fish, who will retire after this year’s US Open.

This week, 30-year-old John Isner carries the mantle of US number one at 13th in the world rankings. The 10-time ATP winner says the state of US men’s tennis is strong with a host of 20-somethings following in his wake.

“I don’t feel any extra pressure being the number one American, I take pride in it,” said Isner. “I know these American guys are nipping at my heels. But I still look at it as my spot.”

But big-serving Isner has been unable to crack the elite levels at Grand Slams, his deepest major run only to the 2011 US Open quarter-finals.

The only other American man to be seeded in the Flushing Meadows fortnight is 28th-ranked Jack Sock, the youngest of the new group at 22 who won his first ATP title in April on Houston clay. 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th,  2015.

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