If there’s such a factor as momentum from match to match in tennis, the American males have some proper now.
Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul definitely are getting inside attain of ending the nation’s unprecedented Grand Slam males’s title drought, so possibly they’re lastly able to win a type of trophies — if anybody apart from Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz is ever going to once more, that’s — on the U.S. Open, which will get going Sunday.
“We’ve got a extremely robust group. We’re nearer; the closest we’ve been in a very long time,” stated Fritz, a 27-year-old from California who’s seeded No. 4 in New York and was the the runner-up to Sinner there a 12 months in the past. “We’ve got a number of gamers who’re on the caliber it takes to win a Grand Slam title. We’re very shut. However that final little bit is clearly the toughest a part of it.”
It’s been 22 years since an American man received a Grand Slam title
Fritz’s look within the 2024 U.S. Open closing was the primary time in 15 years {that a} man from america even earned the suitable to play for a serious singles championship. Fritz, No. 6 Shelton, who’s 22, and No. 17 Tiafoe, 27, every has participated in Slam semifinals twice; No. 14 Paul, 28, has been that far as soon as.
“Taylor attending to the ultimate of the U.S. Open goes to gas Tommy, Ben and Frances. … That’s at all times the way in which it’s been with this era: They spark one another,” stated U.S. Davis Cup captain Bob Bryan, a 16-time Grand Slam doubles champion who’s being inducted into the Worldwide Tennis Corridor of Fame on Saturday. “They see themselves making the ultimate of a Grand Slam now. It’s not unattainable. It’s not not possible.”
All 4 have frolicked within the high 10. Certainly, when Shelton cracked that milestone in June, he joined Fritz and Paul to offer their nation three representatives in that elite group for the primary time since 2006.
U.S. girls preserve successful Slam trophies and appeared within the final 4 finals
American girls, in the meantime, occupy 4 of the highest 9 locations within the WTA rankings and 5 of the highest 11. They preserve incomes spots in title matches — no less than one has participated in every of the previous 4 Slam finals, successful two.
“The ladies have been carrying for a really, very very long time,” Fritz acknowledged with a smile.
It helped, in fact, to have Serena Williams — 23 main singles championships — and Venus Williams — seven — however there additionally had been titles collected by Coco Gauff, Madison Keys, Sofia Kenin and Sloane Stephens since 2017.
Now, maybe, it’s the lads’s flip?
“For certain, there’s going to be a whole lot of hype round them going into the U.S. Open,” stated Jessica Pegula, the American who was the runner-up to No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka at Flushing Meadows final 12 months. “I do know they love taking part in there and wish to do properly there, too.”
Been fairly some time, as everybody is aware of: Andy Roddick’s U.S. Open triumph in 2003 was the latest Slam title anyplace for a person from the nation — a reality the present crop has heard extra usually than they’d care to recollect.
There are 14 American males within the high 100 of the ATP rankings
“I believe it simply is available in waves. I actually do. And so you should have individuals sort of freaking out as a result of there’s a spot,” stated Keys, who received the Australian Open in January. “After which you will have an enormous group that comes alongside collectively, as a result of they obtained to compete towards one another and push one another in juniors. To count on that each 5 to seven years, it’s not reasonable.”
There are different younger U.S. males inside the highest 100, too, together with No. 31 Brandon Nakashima, who’s 24; No. 32 Alex Michelsen, 20; No. 50 Learner Tien, 19; No. 81 Ethan Quinn, 21; No. 83 Sebastian Korda, 25; and No. 91 Jenson Brooksby, 24.
“What you are able to do is give your self pictures at it,” stated DC Open chairman Mark Ein, a former member of the U.S. Tennis Affiliation Board. “And proper now, we’ve obtained a whole lot of pictures at it.”
