WASHINGTON — Former World No. 1 Andy Roddick nearly collapsed to the ground, put his hands on his head and was visibly overcome with emotion. The then-21-year-old had just fired an ace that cemented the 2003 U.S. Open title in straight sets over Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero.
Roddick’s U.S. Open championship was the second straight by an American after Pete Sampras won the 2002 U.S. Open and came just months after Andre Agassi’s 2003 Australian Open title. However, in the 86 Grand Slam events since Roddick’s victory, no other American man has reached the mountaintop and won either the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon or U.S. Open.
Over that stretch, just six Americans have appeared in a Grand Slam final with a 15-year gap between Roddick’s 2009 Wimbledon final run and the most recent, Taylor Fritz’s 2024 U.S. Open runner-up finish.
A large contributing factor to that was the sheer dominance of three of the sport’s greatest players of all-time in Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. That trio combined to capture 65 of the past 86 Grand Slam titles since Roddick’s win. While Nadal and Federer retired in recent years and the 38-year-old Djokovic is on the backend of his career, Italy’s Jannik Sinner and Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz have emerged as dominant forces. The top two players in the world have combined to win the past seven Grand Slam titles entering this year’s U.S. Open.
However, despite the prolonged drought and changing of the guard with new stars emerging, American men’s tennis is rapidly ascending with more players making deep runs at majors in recent years. Meanwhile, American women have been a staple in Grand Slam finals, spearheaded by 23-time major champion Serena Williams and seven-time champ Venus Williams and continued into the next generation of stars such as Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys. An American woman has played in each of the past four Grand Slam finals, with Keys and Gauff winning the Australian Open and French Open, respectively.
The men are looking to replicate that success.
“American tennis is in a great spot. And we have been knocking on the door for a while,” Tiafoe said. “I don’t think this is something new. Now you look at the slams, someone is going to be there at least pushing quarters, semifinals. Shout-out to the women. That’s something we are trying to push and catch up to them. They have been doing a spectacular job. All those individuals have been able to be in the second Saturday. It’s a huge, huge deal. Monumental moment, whether they held the trophy or not.”
Fritz and Ben Shelton are each two-time Grand Slam semifinalists, Frances Tiafoe is a two-time U.S. Open semifinalist and Tommy Paul also made it to the final four at the 2023 Australian Open.
“I think the success in American tennis is evident right now, and there’s a lot of names doing great things in tournaments,” Shelton said. “Seems to be, like, different people all the time. If you look at the last, you know, six slams, it’s been a combination of guys who have been in the quarters or semis or made a deep run, whether it’s me and Fritz or Tommy and Foe or Fritz and Tommy or Foe and Fritz.”
All seven of their combined semifinal appearances have come within the past four years, and each of them are ranked inside the top 15 of the Association of Tennis Professionals’ most recent rankings. Fritz, No. 4 in the world, is the highest-ranked American man since Roddick was fifth for several months in 2009. Meanwhile, Shelton continues to climb with a career-high ranking of eighth, with 11th-ranked Tiafoe and 15th-ranked Paul not far behind.
“I think as far as it goes, we’d say our group’s doing well,” Fritz said. “But it’s been a really just steady growth. We have had this great group of guys I have known since we were 14, 15 years old, and it’s been great to do this whole thing with them and kind of climb up and come up with them.”
There are several factors that have contributed to that development in the past decade-plus, according to Kent Kinnear, the United States Tennis Association’s Head of Men’s Tennis. Kinnear gave immense credit to former USTA Director of Coaching José Higueras, whose coaching framework and emphasis on a strong culture is still being utilized today. Higueras has a background coaching several top players, including former Grand Slam champions Sampras, Federer, Jim Courier and Michael Chang.
Kinnear also cited the USTA’s in-depth camp structure, which is bringing in kids at a young age and working in tandem with their individual coaches to maximize progress and results. That growth is evident not just with the highest-ranked American men, but the collective development of the group.
Ten years ago, there were just seven Americans ranked in the ATP top 100, including just three in the top 35. Now there are 13 inside the top 100, including seven in the top 35 with Brandon Nakashima (No. 32), Sebastian Korda (No. 33) and Alex Michelsen (No. 34) also among that group.
Within that, there are several mini generations. Paul (age 28), Fritz (27), Tiafoe (27) are the “elder statesmen” of the group, while Shelton, Nakashima, Korda, Michelsen and Aleksandar Kovacevic are all 26 or younger. Nineteen-year-old Learner Tien (ranked 67th) and 21-year-old Ethan Quinn (ranked 91st) are other young players emblematic of that wide-spread growth.
“When you talk about Taylor, Frances, Tommy and then Reilly Opelka, you got four guys, there was one year where three of them won junior slams in the same year,” Kinnear said. “They’ve been pushing each other.
“I think as one of them would pop through, the others knew they should be there with them. Hopefully we’ll keep pushing even higher for those guys and even with the next generation of players coming up. Those guys have trailblazed a really nice pathway.”
Healthy competitiveness and strong camaraderie are also fueling that development. Many of today’s top players serve as inspiration for the next generation at the junior level and below. Shelton, and fellow Americans Mackenzie McDonald and Jenson Brooksby train with the USTA in Orlando, Florida, and have built relationships with many of their junior players.
“For me, I think inspiring younger people is the coolest part that we have in this sport,” Shelton said. “Yes, it’s very cool to have fans that are adults and people who have watched the sport for forever and appreciate the game of tennis, love you, but for me it’s like little kids, younger kids, people get inspired. I love the young group of American kids that we have.”
Shelton, a Florida native who trains at the USTA National Campus in the Lake Nona region of Orlando, said that he sees younger players all the time in dorms, on the practice courts or in the locker room. He values those relationships.
“I become friends with those guys,” he said. “It’s not a one-time pump-up speech. I text with them. I know them.”
Kinnear vividly recalled two of those inspirational moments at this year’s French Open with Shelton and Tiafoe. Both players took time and sought out the Junior French Open participants, firing them up and offering encouragement. Fritz and Paul do much of the same as Fritz trains in Southern California with Michelsen and Tien.
That core group is empowering the next generation, and starting with this week’s Mubadala Citi DC Open, the American men will look to maintain their collective momentum heading into the U.S. Open in New York.
Several Americans are in the DC Open quarterfinals, including a juicy matchup between Tiafoe and Shelton on Friday night at the main stadium court at Rock Creek Tennis Center. Fritz (vs. No. 12 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain) and Nakashima (vs. No. 7 Alex de Minaur of Australia) are also in contention.
“Just watching Taylor at Wimbledon in the semifinals against Alcaraz and having a couple set points to get into a fifth set, watching Ben obviously playing a tough Sinner in the quarters, seeing those guys continue to get better and get closer, I’m really hopeful,” Kinnear said. “That will be a great day if and when that happens. I’m certainly optimistic that it will, but it won’t be easy. [Winning the U.S. Open] would make it incredibly special. Obviously, any of the Grand Slams would be special, but that would be incredible.”
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