Never has a time been more ripe for an American tennis player to sneak up and challenge in the French Open's men's draw; if only there were any American tennis challengers.
Early exit from Madrid Open could hasten Andy Murray phone call to John McEnroe
The current top players in the world - Rafael Nadal's confidence, Novak Djokovic's wrist, Roger Federer's age and his family, Andy Murray's head and Stanislas Wawrinka's inexperience in the spotlight - all have question marks heading into the biggest four months of the tennis calendar.
No American, however, seems close to prepared to capitalize.
The biggest news in American tennis in recent memory has come within the last week. The world's No. 8 player, Andy Murray, announced he was considering asking 55-year-old American and former No. 1 player John McEnroe to become his next coach.
That was followed by 44-year-old American and former world's No. 1 player Andre Agassi announcing he thought Rafael Nadal had surpassed Roger Federer as the greatest player of all-time.
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The last time an American male any news on the court is approaching four years when John Isner beat France's Nicolas Mahut at the 2010 Wimbledon championships with a mind-numbing 70-68 fifth set of a match that lasted three days and more than 11 hours.
It was a first-round match.
It's been five years since Andy Roddick pushed Roger Federer to 16-14 fifth set in championship match at the 2009 Wimbledon. The last time an American won a Grand Slam was 2003 when Roddick won the U.S. Open.
Roddick now is retired. As is Agassi, McEnroe, Pete Sampras etc. ...
The highest ranked American on the ATP is 29-year-old Isner at No. 10. No other American male ranks in the top-50.
Several stories popped up around last year's U.S. Open - the 10th-year anniversary of the last Grand Slam victory by a U.S. player - as to the demise of tennis in the United States.
Most experts agreed that not enough was being done to attract more American kids to play - whether it was through the USTA or just other entities. Sports on Earth reported that the USTA hired Patrick McEnroe as general manager of player development with the Player Development Program, and Jose Higueras as director of coaching to try to get younger kids involved.
That was in 2008.
While one argument existed that the U.S. lacked a centralized location for the development of youth tennis, former No. 4 player Todd Martin told Forbes in an article last year addressing the crisis in American tennis that he didn't think one set method of development existed. In football, basketball, baseball or golf, no one method for development exists, either.
Yet different U.S. stars are emerging in each of those sports.
Forbes reported that the USTA laments a lack of funding to put on a massive national can to get kids back into the game. The Forbes article talked about the USTA pairing up with American Express to start the Fresh Courts program to repair or refurbish public tennis courts across the country to give kids places to play.
As of September of last year, the initiative was 3 years old and had repaired 80 courts. But there are about 250,000 courts in the U.S.
The other factor in the absence of interest among kids lies in the fact that John McEnroe remains the most visible American tennis player at age 55 - through his broadcasting and other public appearances, something else is wrong. Sure, plenty of players have their tennis academies, including Agassi, McEnroe and former No. 4 player Todd Martin, but the great U.S. players have done little to event attempt promote the sport through national forums.
Players such as Sampras, Jim Courier and Michael Change for the most part have blended back into the crowd in their retirement. Certainly, Sampras was considered one of the most vanilla champions of all time during his prime, so to think that he might become a mouthpiece for the sport in his retirement is far-fetched.
Agassi made a stir with his comments about Nadal, but he didn't even bring up is pal (or nemeis?) Sampras in the conversation - in which Pete belongs.
And while Agassi's autobiography generally was regarded as a fascinating read, it didn't exactly put the sport in a favorable light.
But the USTA or whatever American tennis entity is in charge needs to reach out to the former stars to promote the game across the country to help attract interest.
Several retired U.S. players compete on the Champions Series, which should be trying to stage matches all over the country to rekindle love for the game.
It's a game devoid of controversies about concussions or performance-enhancing drugs. But right now it's also devoid of stars - past or present - in a national forum.
The longer the game is out of sight in the states, it'll also be out of mind. By the time the children of Andre Agassi and Steffi Graff start entering tournaments - and who knows whether they ever will? - the passion in tennis may be gone completely in the U.S.
In which case, don't be surprised down the road if an American is asked his opinion in the Federer-Nadal debait, and his response is, "Who?"
Can the U.S. rekindle its status among the elite countries in men's tennis or do you care? Comment below or tell us @SportsWN.
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