U.S. men's new low is a big problem

It was unhappily symbolic that the Legg Mason Tennis Classic — the longstanding and well-supported tournament in the nation’s capital that, traditionally, has been a happy hunting ground for American players over the years — should coincide with the moment that saw men’s tennis in the U.S. hit a new low.

As Argentina’s David Nalbandian beat Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-2, 7-6 (4) in Sunday’s final, the USTA was preparing itself for the fact that the ATP rankings issued this week showed no American in the top 10 for the first time since ... well, basically, ever.

Since the ATP ranking was first produced in 1973, there has been at least one top 10 American keeping the nation’s tennis at the very forefront of the game — and before 1973, players like William Larned, Bill Tilden, Don Budge, Budge Patty, Tony Trabert, Vic Seixas and Chuck McKinley, to name a few, extended that dominance through all the previous decades of the 20th century.

But, when a lethargic and clearly concerned Andy Roddick lost to Frenchman Gilles Simon in the quarterfinals of the Legg Mason this past week, it meant that the former U.S. Open champion’s gallant eight-year hold on a top 10 place in the rankings had slipped. Hopefully, it will not be long before Sam Querrey (ranked No. 21) and John Isner (No. 19), who have made big strides this year, will move up to fill the vacancy as the USTA searches for young players who have that stamp of class which singles them out as potential Grand Slam winners.

Legg Mason chairman and founder Donald Dell, who was responsible for managing the careers of Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith and others, was upset at the succession of losses suffered by Americans at his tournament this year. Roddick, Isner, Querrey, Mardy Fish (No. 34) and James Blake all were victims of early defeats.

“The fact was that the Europeans and South Americans played better than the Americans and that was disappointing,” said Dell of the tournament. “Generally, I feel that, particularly in Eastern Europe, the players are hungrier. They still see tennis as a passport to a better life.”

Currently, there are more than 20 Eastern Europeans in the top 100 just on the men’s tour, but Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe prefers to avoid excuses and comparisons and concentrate on the job he was given a couple of years ago as head of USTA player development.

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“I look at the current situation, which is not great, as a challenge,” McEnroe told me. “To be fair, I think the USTA saw the writing on the wall and decided to do something about it. So they have given me a free hand to develop a team of coaches, trainers and fitness experts, which now total 55 people, and it is up to us to do a better job. And that means reaching out to everyone, even those coaches, famous or not, who are not within our system and finding out how we can work together."

There is no doubting McEnroe’s dedication or passion. I have watched how hard his team works during visits to the USTA headquarters at the Evert Academy in Boca Raton, Florida.

But another unpalatable statistic has emerged in the last few weeks which pinpoints past shortcoming on the part of the USTA. With Blake’s ranking in free fall (he's now ranked No. 108), there is now not one black American male ranked in the world’s top 100.

I know there are programs in the inner cities because, when I was running the Gerulaitis Grassroots Challenge in the mid-'90s, I included teams from New York, Washington as well as Los Angeles and Palo Alto. I had long discussions with the black coaches in charge and realized the problems they faced were almost unimaginable.

The L.A. coach told me he had to make sure his players were wearing the right color T-shirt while travelling to the courts, otherwise they were in danger of being shot by rival gang members. Really. So, yes, I have some understanding of the difficulties.

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Even, so the USTA has not done enough to unearth the talent that is undeniably there and have also allowed some of the best talent to be hopelessly mismanaged.

It was blindingly obvious after a couple of tournaments that Donald Young was not ready, at the age of 15, for Grand Slam and ATP wild cards — the scores of 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 or some such were there for all to see — but his managers kept on throwing him in the deep end, and it is to Young’s credit that he has held on to the remaining shreds of his confidence. But, far from turning into the next Arthur Ashe, he has struggled all the way and is ranked 104 at the age of 21.

Expecting a national association to create top players is unrealistic. The truly great ones pop out of nowhere and frequently bypass the system. Boris Becker and Steffi Graf were not products of the German federation any more than Rafa Nadal or Andy Murray were brought through by the great system that exists in Spain or the mediocre one that exists in Britain. And you have to look no further than the parents to discover who developed Venus and Serena Williams.

This truth has hit home to McEnroe since he took the job.

“Our original mission statement was to create champions,” he said. “But national associations can’t really create a champion. So we changed that mission statement to be more realistic. We will create a philosophy that clears a path for young players to reach the pro level. If we get it right, the players will come through. And I speak daily to some of my guys like Jose Higueras about how best to achieve that. We believe, for instance, that there is too little clay court tennis in America, and the USTA has responded by putting in five clay courts at Flushing Meadows. It’s about offering all the facilities and all the backup with a strong work ethic as well as that hunger, which I do not believe can only be found in Eastern Europe.”

McEnroe agrees that more emphasis could be placed on finding talent in the inner cities, but he warns of the challenges tennis presents.

“Tennis is a tough sport to master,” he says. “It takes more technical expertise than just going out and playing soccer or basketball. But, yes, we need to go and find the talent that may be there but, frankly, my job is to develop players be they black, white or Asian — and if you come to Boca you will find all sorts.”