When will an American man reclaim Grand Slam glory?
Jimmy Connors. Arthur Ashe. John McEnroe. Michael Chang. Jim Courier. Pete Sampras. Andre Agassi. Faucet slows to a drip…Andy Roddick…faucet stops. That’s a heck of a list. Some of those names are all-time greats; some of them dominated the sport on and off the courts. They starred in commercials. They were must watch.
But it’s been 22 years. Twenty-two years since an American man claimed a title in a Grand Slam tennis event. It’s hard to fathom, and it’s by far the longest stretch of time since we started hitting green, fuzzy balls over a net that an American male failed to grab one of the big ones.
U.S. MEN’S TENNIS FANS feel the absence of a Grand Slam victory.
Photo by Filip Mroz
Tennis is an utterly international sport, which is part of what makes it great, but the history of the sport can’t be told without the American men who etched their names in infamy. Connors electrified us. Ashe broke barriers. McEnroe questioned if the umps were serious, as well as everything else they did. Chang surprised in Roland Garros. Sampras barely cracked a smile en route to 14 major wins. Agassi played with pizzazz; the ultimate pitchman, who married a legend from the ladies’ bracket in Steffi Graf.
Twenty-two years ago, at the ripe age of 21, American Andy Roddick took Queens, New York, by storm, capturing the US Open title and becoming king of the sport. Charismatic and young, surely he’d carry the mantle of the next great American male tennis player and claim several more.
Instead, he’d go on to appear in four more Grand Slam finals, losing all of them to Roger Federer.
There’s no shame in that—Federer is in the conversation of being the game’s greatest player in history, as are two men whose careers coincided with his, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Federer and Nadal, the handsome and charismatic Europeans, combined for an absurd 42 major titles between 2003 through 2022. Overlapping in that window was the robotic and controversial Djokovic (I’m a fan), claiming 24 major wins of his own. So it’s not hard to see who has been winning all those majors over the past two decades. And yet, the Americans couldn’t grab even one?!
For me, the major drought for American men coincides with my watching less of the sport. Not that there isn’t great talent all over the world worth following, but for me tennis is similar to soccer—it spikes my interest when the American men perform well. Those names mentioned in the first paragraph are mostly icons of the sport; by comparison, the last 22 years have been the decades of darkness.
Interestingly, and if you’ve made it this far in this article you probably realize in that same 22-year window, American women have grabbed 26 Grand Slam titles! And there’s been plenty happening on that side of the bracket to catch your attention, including the entirety of the Williams sisters’ careers. They combined to win 22 of them (19 for Serena, 3 for Venus) during an incredibly dominant run. And there have been other great American female players during that stretch, including Jennifer Capriati, Lindsay Davenport and Coco Gauff today.
But when will an American male player reclaim tennis glory in a Major? The roadblock today is similar to the past 22 years: there are two extremely talented European players at the top of the mens’ draw right now—Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcatraz. Like the Big Three before them, they look like generational talents.
The top American male threats right now are Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe, each of whom have knocked on a Major championship door in the past few years. Tiafoe has twice reached the semifinals of the US Open. Shelton has been a semifinalist at the US and Australian opens, and Fritz has pulled off the feat at Wimbledon and the US Open.
Do any of these guys have a shot in Queens this month? Tiafoe seems to thrive there, and Shelton is increasingly a fan favorite with his chiseled arms and charismatic persona. But if you have to hang your hat on an American ending that 22-year drought, go with Fritz. He reached the final four at Wimbledon this year, is the game’s best server right now and rides a wave of momentum to the US Open. The American male drought has to end at some point, right?
The 2025 US Open in Queens, New York, continues through Sun., Sept. 7.
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