Let’s go back to the 2003 U.S. Open. America was on top of the tennis world. All-time great defending champion Pete Sampras had just retired after winning 14 grand slams in 14 years. Andre Agassi came in as the No. 1 seed, and had won a total of eight majors before, including the Australian Open that year. Andy Roddick was the 21-year-old American phenomenon, who had been winning everything on tour that season. Roddick excelled and won his first and only major. He was the last American to win a grand slam, and that was 11 ?years ago.
What happened? Roddick had chances to reach the Wimbledon final three times, but he came up short, and after Agassi retired in 2006, Roddick was the only American reaching the quarterfinals. International players since 2003 have obviously taken over the ?tennis world.
Roddick later retired after the 2012 U.S. Open. One American named John Isner has been what most people call “America’s only hope.” Isner has been in the world top 10 rankings but has never reached a grand slam semifinal. Isner made some excitement in 2011 when he made the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, but that’s as far as he has ever gotten. Isner was the No. 13 seed for this year’s tournament and was the only American to make it past the second round. Isner was upset though by No. 22 Philipp Kohlshreiber in the ?third round.
Tennis in America is falling in popularity. Football, basketball and soccer all seem to be growing at an extreme pace. Tennis is sometimes one of the last sports for most kids to try. Internationally, that is not the case. For a lot of European countries, tennis is the second most popular sport behind soccer. For that reason alone, U.S. tennis will continue to decline, while the rest of the world will only get better.
