WIMBLEDON, England -- When Andy Roddick won the 2003 U.S. Open, he strutted into his post-match news conference and, slapping a table for emphasis, declared with a smile: "No more, 'What's it feel like to be the future of American tennis?"'
Well, kid, it's time to rephrase the question. Something along the lines of: What's it feel like to be the only thing going in American men's tennis?
Unless a U.S. man wins Wimbledon two weeks from now -- and Roddick is the only one with a realistic shot -- it would mark seven straight Grand Slam tournaments without an American champion, dating to Roddick's breakthrough in New York. That would be the longest such drought in more than 15 years.
The final remnant of the previous generation of American tennis players, Andre Agassi, is 35 and fading, and he pulled out of Wimbledon for the second year in a row. So when the grass-court major's seedings were announced last week, No. 2 Roddick was the lone U.S. man in the top 16. It's the first time there weren't at least two since Wimbledon first seeded 16 players in 1968.
"It is worrisome to me," U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe said. "Clearly, it is a problem for us."
There is plenty of evidence that this a fallow period for U.S. men in tennis.
To wit:
- Even with Agassi and Roddick in the fold, the United States lost to Croatia in the first round of the Davis Cup in March. That extended the Americans' drought since their last Cup title to a decade, the longest gap since the 1930s.
- No U.S. man made it past the second round at the French Open in 2004, the first time in more than 30 years that happened at any major. Then it happened again at this year's French Open.
- In last week's ATP Tour rankings, there were just four American men in the top 50: Roddick, Agassi, No. 30 Taylor Dent and No. 41 Vince Spadea. That's only one more representative than Belgium, a nation of 10 million people. There were just eight Americans in the top 100, fewer than Spain or Argentina or France. Argentina has five players in the top 20.
Look past Roddick, 22, and there doesn't appear to be an up-and-coming American ready to excel on the tour. It could be years of waiting for Donald Young, who won the Australian Open junior title in January to become, at 15, the youngest to top the boys' rankings.
The outlook doesn't seem a whole lot brighter for the U.S. women, either. There are 10 in the top 100, and none is younger than 23. Contrast that with Russia, which has 11 women in the top 50, just one older than 23.
"There are no young women coming up," TV analyst Mary Carillo said. "So it's a big concern."
Why are other countries surpassing the United States?
"Tennis is the second-, third-biggest sport in most European countries. Certainly, in South America, it's just more popular," McEnroe said. "It's a way out. They're hungry. These kids are hungry."
A lack of top American men hurts the sport in two ways: It can have a rollover effect when kids don't have role models who inspire them to take up tennis, and it can sap interest among fans right now.
