Americans — both male and female — are mired in a grand slam drought. It feels like they're getting closer. The question is how can they take that next step, and is the weight of history an issue?
As we enter the second week of Wimbledon, U.S. tennis finds itself in a curious position.
Scratch beneath the surface however, and the picture is a lot more encouraging. The depth in men’s and women’s American tennis is very impressive. Starting with the men, there are two Americans in the top 10 for the first time since 2012 , three in the top 15, four in the top 25 and seven in the top 50.
But this is where one’s perspective is so important. If you work in talent development, having so much depth is a testament to the fact that your processes are working, that there are clear pathways to success. This is certainly the view of Martin Blackman, a former American player and the general manager of United States Tennis Association player development. He also believes that having so many players ranked close to one another creates a virtuous cycle.
America broadly just kept doing the same things, perhaps understandably seeing little reason to change when it was so dominant. In 2008, work began on a new player pathway programme, which ran in that guise until 2020 and served to produce the impressive current crop of very talented, highly-ranked American players. “We used to have great academies like Nick Bollettieri’s in the 1990s and before but investment and subsidies that other nations were making in the 2000s and 1990s we weren’t really doing. Subsidies to fund those people who couldn’t afford to pay for travel, etc. That really started to put us behind.
“So when you have friends that are a little bit rivals, I think it’s really good for the kids to motivate them. And when you have other athletes at your level who are also committed to playing the sport long-term, really interesting things happen.” “We still have room to improve in our professionalism. America as a whole is not as sound as the players coming from say Spain, in terms of owning their games, owning their tactics, being prepared and 100 per cent fit all the time.”
Starting with how players are coached. “It’s the concept of being more holistic. We use a performance team approach where the coach is the leader and the driver but he’s taking input from the mental performance coach, from the strength and conditioning coach, from the analytics expert, etc.”The way coaches communicate is also important. “It’s about keeping it relevant to a new generation,” says Blackman. “When I was a young player in the late 80s, early 90s, coaching was very direct.
Collins’ background is also interesting as she went through the route of playing college tennis while studying for a degree. More and more players have done that over the last decade or so, including Isner, Eubanks and even the British No 1 Cameron Norrie, and it has many advocates.
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