Handicapping the American Men

Which American Men Are Poised to Make the Most of their New York Minutes?

By Chris Oddo

(August 16, 2012)--Twenty years ago, the landscape of American men’s tennis was vastly different. A generation of legends—Arthur Ashe, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe—was giving way to a new generation that would prove to be even more legendary—Pete Sampras, Jim Courier, Andre Agassi.

It truly was the best of times.

At the 1992 US Open, for the second time in three years, five Americans reached the quarterfinals, which were then whittled down to a semifinal round that featured three Americans.

Let’s just say that things were different back then. Very, very different.

Fast forward twenty years, and the reality is that all we have left of the glory days of American tennis are a lot of scrapbooks, records and YouTube videos.

In 2009, for the first time in the US Open’s then 129-year-history, not a single American man reached the quarterfinals. Was it an aberration? A down year?

Well, it happened again in 2010.

Last year, Andy Roddick and John Isner reversed the trend as both reached the quarterfinals, but as we look ahead to this year’s open, it’s pretty difficult to imagine any American reaching the final eight.

But I’m not here to lambaste the American men. If fact, quite the opposite. I’m here to sing their praises, to trumpet their talents and to prognosticate on which one of them might have enough magic to make a deep run in New York.

Things have changed over the years. Dominance has dwindled. But always, we can count on a few captivating stories—think Jesse Witten coming from out of nowhere to reach the third round in 2009, Taylor Dent on Grandstand high-fiving the fans in that same year, Ryan Harrison cutting his teeth in a classic match against Sergiy Stakhovsky in 2010, Donald Young beating Stan Wawrinka in 2011—that make the US Open special for the American men.

We may not be the tennis behemoth that we were in the past, but that doesn’t mean that the American men aren’t worth rooting for.

To see our thoughts on Jack Sock, Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish, and other Americans, view our magaize article!

(Photo Credit: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)