Is American tennis back?
Recently there has been an American tennis resurgence on both the men’s and women’s tour, particularly with the 2024 US Open run seeing four Americans in the semis and two making the final.
Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Fritz, Jessica Pegula and Emma Navarro all made the semis with Fritz and Pegula making the final, losing to eventual champions Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka respectively.
After his straight sets loss to Sinner, Fritz asserted that his Grand Slam final run was ‘repeatable’.
“I know we’ve been waiting for a champion for a long time so I’m sorry I couldn’t get it done this time, but I’m gonna keep working and hopefully I’ll get it the next time.”
Pegula, meanwhile, was optimistic that her career trajectory is on the up, based on results.
“I mean, I think I've taken confidence from winning a 250, from winning a 1000, from being able to win another 1000, [so I have] multiple ones now. Then to be able to be a Grand Slam finalist… Can I be a contender to actually win a Grand Slam? ... I think for sure I will take a lot of confidence from this.”
Now, this resurgence may be partly due to the advantage of playing in front of a home crowd; Americans do tend to peak at the US Open, just like Australians play well at the Australian Open, French players at Roland Garros and British players at Wimbledon.
But the rankings also reflect this, with five American men and women in the top 20.
For the men, while there aren’t any in the top 10, there are three knocking at the door in Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul, with Sebastian Korda and Frances Tiafoe rounding out the five in the top 20.
Fritz has arguably been the most consistent at Grand Slam level, making the fourth round or better at all four majors, with Shelton, Paul and Tiafoe not far behind. Korda still hasn’t really broken through at the majors, despite having a great season so far this year, although he did make the quarter-finals at the Australian Open last year.
As for the women, Coco Gauf and Jessica Pegula are securely in the top 10, followed by Danielle Collins, Emma Navarro and Madison Keys, with Navarro having a breakout year, achieving her best ever Grand Slam results across the board (making her first ever semi final at the U.S. Open).
The most recent American grand slam champion is, of course, Coco Gauff, winning the US Open last year and Fritz became the first male singles finalist at Flushing Meadows since Andy Roddick 18 years ago back in 2006.
Indeed, Roddick is also the last American man to win a singles grand slam back in 2003.
With such a rich history of past greats like Connors, McEnroe, Sampras and Agassi, it’s hard to believe we haven’t seen a male singles champion in 21 years.
And now, with the deep run we’ve seen at this year’s U.S. Open, it’s hard not to argue that American tennis is back, particularly in the men’s, which suffered a bit of a dry spell, arguably since Andre Agassi retired in 2006.
It hasn’t been quite as dire for the women, with Serena Williams winning an astonishing 23 grand slam titles from 1999 to 2017, but it has slowed down since then, with only three major champions: Sloane Stephens in 2017, Sofia Kenin in 2020 and Coco Gauf in 2023.
All in all, seeing so many talented American players coming through and having deep runs at Flushing Meadows proves that American tennis is in good shape. The fact that there are 10 Americans (five men and five women) so close in the rankings will also inspire healthy competition amongst the group.
Given their age profiles, most of these players should be serious contenders for years to come, particularly as Roger has retired, Rafa is on the way out and Novak seems to be finally slowing down.
As it stands, the only players stopping this American contingent from winning a major title are Sinner and Alcaraz on the men’s side and Swiatek and Sabalenka on the women’s.
However, with the rise of so many talented players on the tour, the next great era of American tennis looks like it’s finally arrived.
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