Remember when the United States and Australia dominated professional tennis?
Mike Wheelen and I do. And we both agree. It’s been a while ... a long while ... many decades back, in fact.
My question to Wheelen, tennis academy and program director at Millennium Tennis & Fitness Club, was simple enough. Where are the top-ranked American players and why have pros from much smaller nations than the U.S. ruled the tennis roost for so long now?
Did you know that going into the current U.S. Open there was only one American listed in the men’s top 20 (Andy Roddick at No. 5) by the Association of Tennis Professionals? In fact, there are only three more in the top 50 and nine altogether in the top 100 ATP rankings.
Furthermore, as of Monday night, there will be no American man in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open for the first time ever in the open-era history of the Open. John Isner’s fourth-round loss to Fernando Verdasco assured that.
How about women, you ask? If it weren't for sisters Serena and Venus Williams, there wouldn't be any American females ranked above 70 by the Women's Tennis Association. Serena and Venus are ranked second and third, respectively. Next comes the teenage phenom, Melanie Oudin, at No. 70, and Jill Craybas at 75.
Oh, and speaking of Oudin ... this may be just the spark our country needs. With another U.S. Open upset Monday, this amazing 17-year-old has become the darling of American tennis right now. And rightly so. She has traveled a long road from a No. 221 ranking one year ago to Wednesday’s quarterfinal round at the Open, which will undoubtedly move her at least into the WTA’s top 50.
There may be a logical, if not disturbing, explanation of the U.S. tennis meltdown. And if anyone could offer an in-depth analysis for the reason, Wheelen could.
Mike, a former coach at Florida Atlantic University, recently signed on at Millennium after coaching the University of Tulsa tennis team and Arnau Brugues. A native of Barcelona, Spain, Brugues was named the No. 1 singles player in the country this year by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. The Spaniard, a three-time All-American, has already won a couple of Futures tournaments on the pro tour.
Anyway, the problem, as Wheelen sees it, has to with what he calls the “sports hierarchy” in nations around the world. Each country has its most popular sports, and professional athletes naturally gravitate toward the ones that are most recognized and bring the greatest fame and fortune.
As Mike noted, premier athletes in the United States get taken long before tennis pulls them into its throes.
In the U.S. hierarchy of sports, football and baseball lead the way, while tennis falls far behind even other sports like basketball and hockey.
“When you go to Spain, tennis is one of the premier sports,” said Wheelen, whose father, Martin, was a familiar face on area tennis courts in the past. “For example, in the 1980s when Sweden was having ridiculous numbers with maybe five or six ranked in the top 10 in the world, the percentage of athletes in that country came from two sports — hockey and tennis. So you got at least half of the athletes in that country going into tennis.”
Another factor, Wheelen mentions, has to do with the amount of spectators drawn in the sports hierarchy.
“If you are a hot-shot athlete and all the people come to watch you play football or basketball, are you going to go play tennis where no one is going to be there or are you going to be cheered on by thousands of people?” he asked. “That is probably one of the biggest reasons we are not getting our premier athletes into tennis.”
If you look at it like a pyramid, Wheelen said, you may be understand even better.
“The bulk of good athletes are going to funnel up,” he said. “If we get 20 percent of them (for tennis) and Spain gets 60 percent, then the odds are going to be better for them.”
So it may not be such a mystery after all.
“The U.S. has a lot of people and a lot of money but, also, a lot of sports,” Wheelen said. “And tennis is way down the line.”
Rich Brown is a sports writer for the Joplin Globe. He may be reached at rbrown@joplinglobe.com
