*** 2026 Tennis Thread ***

[BigJCy]

Rafa Netflix doc coming out May 29th:

Have watched the 1st 2 episodes. Pretty solid watch thus far. Thing I found most interesting was just how bad his foot injury was very early in career (19 years old). I knew he had a bad foot but he had what's called Muller-Weiss syndrome. Which according to the Google is a "rare, incurable degenerative disease affecting the navicular bone in the midfoot and the condition causes the bone to lose blood flow and deteriorate, leading to chronic pain and potential arch collapse". Doctors had a lot of doubt if he would even be able to play again. Even after he returned to playing it still bothered him a lot.

Other thing that has stood out and I suspected this was Uncle Toni was a bit of a tyrant when coaching him, especially when he was young and before he turned pro. Rafa said he didn't tell his Dad & Mom much about it though.

 

[BigJCy]

 

[OKClones]

Not really surprising! Not a great French Open for Americans.

 

[GoHawks]

Serena Williams is making a comeback to tennis.

 

[not-the-manager]

unbelievable collapse by Tiafoe, blew the fourth set now heading to a fifth. I only tuned in towards the end of the fourth, but it looks like another case of an American not employing the right strategy on clay while his opponent's only goal is to get every ball back

 

[GoHawks]

unbelievable collapse by Tiafoe, blew the fourth set now heading to a fifth. I only tuned in towards the end of the fourth, but it looks like another case of an American not employing the right strategy on clay while his opponent's only goal is to get every ball back

31st 5th set match of tournament already. That's incredible

 

[OKClones]

What has happened to American men’s tennis. No major champion since what early 2000’s, Andy Roddick maybe?
Has to be hard for the McEnroe’s to do the commentary at all these Majors.

 

[4cy16]

What has happened to American men’s tennis. No major champion since what early 2000’s, Andy Roddick maybe?
Has to be hard for the McEnroe’s to do the commentary at all these Majors.

Andy Roddick is the last American man to win a Grand Slam singles title. He claimed the championship at the 2003 US Open by defeating Juan Carlos Ferrero in straight sets. [1, 2]

 

[Letterkenny]

What has happened to American men’s tennis. No major champion since what early 2000’s, Andy Roddick maybe?
Has to be hard for the McEnroe’s to do the commentary at all these Majors.

Not enough elite level athletes playing tennis in my opinion. In the modern game you basically need to be an Olympic level athlete, flexible and have the tennis skills to be a Grand Slam contender.

The level of athlete in the sport has skyrocketed the last 15-20 years. Seems like almost everyone moves like Nadal/Djokovic now.

 

[GoHawks]

Not enough elite level athletes playing tennis in my opinion. In the modern game you basically need to be an Olympic level athlete, flexible and have the tennis skills to be a Grand Slam contender.

The level of athlete in the sport has skyrocketed the last 15-20 years. Seems like almost everyone moves like Nadal/Djokovic now.

I'd agree and switch to baseline dominant play allows same players to dominate the sport for many years. If we were to add it up 5 guys have probably won about 90% of slams in past 23 years

 

[Letterkenny]

Mensik takes out Fonseca in straights. Fonseca looked like he ran out of gas after 2 long matches. Mensik has been so impressive on what you would think is his worst surface. I think he hits a wall against Zverev unfortunately. They're almost carbon copies of each other, but Zverev is better right now.

 

[BigJCy]

 

[BigJCy]

 

[Letterkenny]

All gas, no brakes.

 

[GoHawks]

All gas, no brakes.

Difficult conditions for that style today. Weather's been big factor this FO

 

[not-the-manager]

What has happened to American men’s tennis. No major champion since what early 2000’s, Andy Roddick maybe?
Has to be hard for the McEnroe’s to do the commentary at all these Majors.

With the tournament winding down I'll do some ruminating

I could argue American men's tennis overall is in a decent spot. By my count, 17 guys qualified for Roland-Garros. I haven't crunched the numbers, but for at least a few years now it at least feels like there've been 10 or more Americans who've qualified for most of the Grand Slams, which was not the norm a decade+ ago. And they’re not all pushovers. There’s also an upper tier capable of making deep runs in slams, with Fritz, Shelton, Paul, and Tiafoe. Now, I completely agree that that tier really has no shot of winning titles, and each has a glaring hole in his game, if not more than one. But for me, it’s at least better than when I started following the tour a bit and Isner was simultaneously the only American who didn't always have to pull multiple upsets to reach a quarterfinal, but was bound to lose as soon as he played someone who could get his serve back and-or move him. (Yes, I'm young enough that I didn't get to enjoy Agassi and Sampras, so that's subjective.)

As for why none of them really has a shot to win titles, I'm sure there are multiple reasons, but it's always a bit of a mystery to me. Soccer is the sport in Europe. It's really no shock that those countries are effective and efficient at funneling promising players from families with means into academies, and turning a portion of those kids into pros. So people in the US who care concede that we're at a disadvantage out of the gate. But how, then, have almost all the tennis superstars of the last ~20 years been European? I know there are tennis academies here, so it's not like there's no infrastructure in place. @Letterkenny is right that tennis still doesn't have much of a foothold in the US sports scene, but Spain is not a large country, so how did they end up with Nadal and Alcaraz? I know there's always chance/luck involved, so that was somewhat rhetorical. But my point is I don't know that it's a numbers game. My best guess is that, because a large percentage of great athletes in the US play multiple sports until college, there's just not the same all-or-nothing commitment from a young age, at least to sports that are considered second-tier here

 

[Letterkenny]

With the tournament winding down I'll do some ruminating

I could argue American men's tennis overall is in a decent spot. By my count, 17 guys qualified for Roland-Garros. I haven't crunched the numbers, but for at least a few years now it at least feels like there've been 10 or more Americans who've qualified for most of the Grand Slams, which was not the norm a decade+ ago. And they’re not all pushovers. There’s also an upper tier capable of making deep runs in slams, with Fritz, Shelton, Paul, and Tiafoe. Now, I completely agree that that tier really has no shot of winning titles, and each has a glaring hole in his game, if not more than one. But for me, it’s at least better than when I started following the tour a bit and Isner was simultaneously the only American who didn't always have to pull multiple upsets to reach a quarterfinal, but was bound to lose as soon as he played someone who could get his serve back and-or move him. (Yes, I'm young enough that I didn't get to enjoy Agassi and Sampras, so that's subjective.)

As for why none of them really has a shot to win titles, I'm sure there are multiple reasons, but it's always a bit of a mystery to me. Soccer is the sport in Europe. It's really no shock that those countries are effective and efficient at funneling promising players from families with means into academies, and turning a portion of those kids into pros. So people in the US who care concede that we're at a disadvantage out of the gate. But how, then, have almost all the tennis superstars of the last ~20 years been European? I know there are tennis academies here, so it's not like there's no infrastructure in place. @Letterkenny is right that tennis still doesn't have much of a foothold in the US sports scene, but Spain is not a large country, so how did they end up with Nadal and Alcaraz? I know there's always chance/luck involved, so that was somewhat rhetorical. But my point is I don't know that it's a numbers game. My best guess is that, because a large percentage of great athletes in the US play multiple sports until college, there's just not the same all-or-nothing commitment from a young age, at least to sports that are considered second-tier here

I did a little digging.

# of players ranked in the top 100 in the ATP rankings.

USA - 17
Italy - 6
Spain - 7
Germany - 4
Australia - 5
Russia - 3
France -12

As you said, overall, the US is really good. It's just that, when it comes to perception, winning Grand Slams is all that matters. Put the top 10 players from any country on a team and have them square off, the U.S. is probably the best in the world. We just haven't had that top 2-3 guy since Roddick.

It might just be random chance too. In a sport where you can be the 5th-6th best player in the world, you might still never win a Grand Slam. There is just such a gap between the top 1-2 guys and everyone else that wins are unbelievably hard to come by. You might just have to get really lucky to find "that guy". There just aren't very many of them.

It's really f***ing hard to win Grand Slams. Out of the whole ATP tour, there are only a small handful of guys that are capable at a given time. That's the nature of the sport and the one-on-one bracket style tournaments. There isn't much randomness. Big upsets are rare.

 

[not-the-manager]

I did a little digging.

# of players ranked in the top 100 in the ATP rankings.

USA - 17
Italy - 6
Spain - 7
Germany - 4
Australia - 5
Russia - 3
France -12

As you said, overall, the US is really good. It's just that, when it comes to perception, winning Grand Slams is all that matters. Put the top 10 players from any country on a team and have them square off, the U.S. is probably the best in the world. We just haven't had that top 2-3 guy since Roddick.

It might just be random chance too. In a sport where you can be the 5th-6th best player in the world, you might still never win a Grand Slam. There is just such a gap between the top 1-2 guys and everyone else that wins are unbelievably hard to come by. You might just have to get really lucky to find "that guy". There just aren't very many of them.

It's really f***ing hard to win Grand Slams. Out of the whole ATP tour, there are only a small handful of guys that are capable at a given time. That's the nature of the sport and the one-on-one bracket style tournaments. There isn't much randomness. Big upsets are rare.

I take your points and agree with you directionally. I will say it's not like the US is winning Davis Cups every other year... But to your last point, as I and others have already said here, on top of all that it's also hard because American men really haven't ever done well on clay. So you kind of have to cross out Roland-Garros, and for the last ~20 years you've had the best grass player ever (Federer) and maybe the second-best (Djokovic) "blocking" very good players at Wimbledon. Thus, if you want to excuse US players a bit, even top-10 guys have only had realistic shots at two of the slams per year. If Alcaraz and Sinner hadn't both ended up being so good on hard court, I think that alone would've given others a better shot at the Australian and US. But as you said, if even two guys are way better than the rest of the pack, all the sudden that means at least one has to bow out earlier than expected in every slam, or you have to beat both to win the title

 

[GoHawks]

Believe it or not I didn't have Arnaldi vs Cobolli semi final on my card. Today was first time seeing Cobolli very solid all around player. I think he'll be in Quarters-semis quite a bit. Though with Tennis you never know. He reminds me a bit of Lucas Pouille who beat Nadal in classic US Open match and was in top 10 for year or 2 then faded away quickly after

 

[not-the-manager]

Believe it or not I didn't have Arnaldi vs Cobolli semi final on my card. Today was first time seeing Cobolli very solid all around player. I think he'll be in Quarters-semis quite a bit. Though with Tennis you never know. He reminds me a bit of Lucas Pouille who beat Nadal in classic US Open match and was in top 10 for year or 2 then faded away quickly after

I still haven't watched him play, hopefully Friday. Looking at recent tournaments, it seems like he's gaining some traction on tour, even on hard court. At a glance, I think Rublev is the only household name he's beaten, but I suppose he might not have to beat another to win this tournament