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Future looks increasingly dim for American tennis

As the championship continues far from home, with the United States trying to impress the world ... No, no ... not that championship ... The other sedate,
Frank Deford|
Future looks increasingly dim for American tennis
Future looks increasingly dim for American tennis
andy-roddick-deford.jpg

As the championship continues far from home, with the United States trying to impress the world ...

No, no ... not that championship ...

The other sedate, genteel and -- thank God -- mercifully quiet one ...

Yes, Wimbledon has also begun, and, if you get the chance to watch Andy Roddick, be sure to gather your children and grandchildren round the television too so that they can tell their grandchildren: back in 2010 I actually saw the last American tennis champion play.

The fact is that, at 27, which is nearing old age in tennis, Roddick is the last American male to win a Grand Slam title -- and that seven years ago.

On the women's side, the great American tennis void is even more gaping. The Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, are older than Roddick, and no younger American female tennis player appears to have any championship potential.

What makes this all the more ironic is that we are experiencing another tennis boom. More than thirty million Americans now play the sport. Why can't any of them under the age of 27 be any good?

Since Big Bill Tilden won Wimbledon in 1920, American men and women have won on Centre Court in every decade, but Pete Sampras was the last male Yank to win, in 2000, and in those ninety years of American dominance, never have we gone so long without one of our gentlemen or ladies winning. Now, after Roddick and the Williams sisters, the score for the future for the old red-white-and-blue is love-forty.

The two best after Roddick are John Isner and Sam Querrey, ranked 19th and 23rd. They're both nice enough, perhaps especially on grass, but in that wonderful term the English prefer, they may best be described as "useful" players. (Though Isner is certainly getting some attention from his all-time first-round bout against Nicolas Mahut.) Only seven American men are in the top 100. As recently as 1989, seven Americans were in the top 10.

The situation is even more parlous with our women. After the Williams sister act, our next-best is ranked a distant 34. We have all of four women in the top one hundred. In fact, it is far more difficult to understand why American girls now fail so much at tennis. Boys have popular team sports to attract the best athletes, but girls' team sports don't produce nearly as much attention or remuneration. The biggest female athletic celebrities and the ones who have made the most money have traditionally been tennis players. Good grief, we pay more attention just to how Venus and Serena dress than to what other U.S. women athletes actually do on their field of play.

But tennis is an arduous exercise and it's lonely hitting all those thousands of shots against a relentless ball machine. Maybe it's simply become too rigorous a game for our children to devote themselves to ... so, you can roll up the net when you leave, Mr. Roddick.

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Frank Deford
FRANK DEFORD

Frank Deford is among the most versatile of American writers. His work has appeared in virtually every medium, including print, where he has written eloquently for Sports Illustrated since 1962. Deford is currently the magazine's Senior Contributing Writer and contributes a weekly column to SI.com. Deford can be heard as a commentator each week on Morning Edition. On television he is a regular correspondent on the HBO show Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. He is the author of 15 books, and his latest,The Enitled, a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, was published in 2007 to exceptional reviews. He and Red Smith are the only writers with multiple features in The Best American Sports Writing of the Century. Editor David Halberstam selected Deford's 1981 Sports Illustrated profile on Bobby Knight (The Rabbit Hunter) and his 1985 SI profile of boxer Billy Conn (The Boxer and the Blonde) for that prestigious anthology. For Deford the comparison is meaningful. "Red Smith was the finest columnist, and I mean not just sports columnist," Deford told Powell's Books in 2007. "I've always said that Red is like Vermeer, with those tiny, priceless pieces. Five hundred words, perfectly chosen, crafted. Best literary columnist, in any newspaper, that I've ever seen." Deford was elected to the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. Six times at Sports Illustrated Deford was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of The Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of The Year by the Washington Journalism Review. Deford has also been presented with the National Magazine Award for profiles; a Christopher Award; and journalism honor awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University; and he has received many honorary degrees. The Sporting News has described Deford as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ has called him, simply, "The world's greatest sportswriter." In broadcast, Deford has won a Cable Ace award, an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award for his television work. In 2005 ESPN presented a television biography of Deford's life and work, You Write Better Than You Play. Deford has spoken at well over a hundred colleges, as well as at forums, conventions and on cruise ships around the world. He served as the editor-in-chief of The National Sports Daily in its brief but celebrated existence. Deford also wrote Sports Illustrated's first Point After column, in 1986. Two of Deford's books, the novel, Everybody's All-American, and Alex: The Life Of A Child, his memoir about his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis, have been made into movies. Two of his original screenplays have also been filmed. For 16 years Deford served as national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and he remains chairman emeritus. He resides in Westport, CT, with his wife, Carol. They have two grown children – a son, Christian, and a daughter, Scarlet. A native of Baltimore, Deford is a graduate of Princeton University, where he has taught American Studies.

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