His complicated professional life in tennis, moreover, mirrored the path of many young men who come to prominence in their sport before they have the maturity to deal with all the fame.
Despite his early mistakes, however, Agassi redeemed himself by reclaiming his sport and fighting to make it better by example. His flammable behavior fueled by his hot temper was either adored or abhorred by the fans who watched his meltdowns over line calls and umpire overrules. Nonetheless, McEnroe was a champion who competed 16 times at the U. Open with an Johnny Mac played his first U. Open in and his last in He won four championships, three consecutively from with another following in The task grew more difficult in when McEnroe faced Bjorn Borg in the final.
The two countered for five grueling sets before McEnroe won , , , , At Wimbledon in , just prior to the U. Open, McEnroe had lost a five-setter to Borg and felt he had something to prove.
In when McEnroe again faced Borg at the U. Open, the match was not nearly so competitive. But it turned out to be remarkable for another reason. When the Swede lost , , , to McEnroe—Borg walked away from professional tennis forever. McEnroe returned to Flushing Meadows for his final U. Open title—in fact his final slam victory. He defeated Ivan Lendl , , The following year Lendl would defeat McEnroe , , for the title.
John McEnroe also won three Wimbledon titles to add to his four U. Open titles. Johnny Mac will always be remembered as one of the most colorful and explosive American players, who loved the rowdy crowds in New York.
Because of his later disgrace, Bill Tilden's amazing tennis triumphs too often remain buried in the past. If it were not for Tilden's play during the s, U. Tilden brought U. He was the first player from the U.
He would win three Wimbledon titles and the Brits grew to love the showy Tilden's attire and his lethal forehand. Tilden was flamboyant, to say the least.
Yet, perhaps, he was also one of the greatest ever to play the game from the United States—maybe from anywhere. For 14 years, Tilden participated in what we call today the U. Open, seizing the title seven times. His winning percentage was fixed at Throughout his playing career on the grass at Forest Hills, Tilden won the U.
Open consecutively for six years from He won his last Open in but played his last tournament in when he ended his amateur career. Though his life ended without honor and dignity, his tennis career should never be overlooked. He was one of the greatest U. Open champions to play the game. Jimmy Connors was around for so long that everyone in the U. He appeared to them as a man driven to win at all odds—an everyday "Joe" just trying to survive.
Connors often pumped himself up by imagining that everything and everybody was against him. That mindset helped him to become a force in tennis for many, many years.
Connors won five of his seven final appearances at the U. Again, because he played so many years, Connors remains the only male player in the history of the Open to have won the title on three different surfaces—on grass, clay, and hard courts. He won his first title in and his last in Connors played in 22 U. Opens starting in and ending in as he turned Jimbo loved playing in New York where he enjoyed his greatest successes. What he did not care for, however, was the lack of respect he detected from the American press when his career seemed down and out to them.
His next two wins in on clay and on hard courts came against another Connors arch-rival, Bjorn Borg. He mentioned his actress girlfriend Mandy Moore. He faced questions about what it felt like to be 21 and the toast of the five boroughs, if not the country, and answered with a candor that would become his hallmark. And really nothing was surprising about any of this: Another handsome young man from California, New York, or Florida in this case, Nebraska had won the trophy of our home Grand Slam and showed up on late night television—if anything, it felt predictable, a template that had stood for decades and might go on forever, the biggest tennis trophies hoisted by American men, only now, for the turn of the century, in a feathery fauxhawk and distressed jeans.
Now we know differently. The U. Judging by recent years, it is very unlikely that any of them will reach the final, or even the semis; our top contender, John Isner, currently ranked 22 in the world, just lost in the first round. Open champion John McEnroe told me. Whereas lately: not at all. Pro tennis as we know it started in , with the dawn of the Open Era. Americans have since claimed the most Slam titles by far, with The champion-not-stadium Arthur Ashe.
If anything, by the turn of the century, the glut of male tennis superstars from the States felt like overkill, even perhaps in need of correction. Flashback to the aughts, Roddick country. Big expectations, big rewards. First off, the game was changing: Training was more complex, nutrition was better appreciated. Basically, tennis players were spending less time at the club, more time in the gym. We expect greatness with the same entitlement that requires stocks to rise, wars to be won, and pizzas to be delivered in 30 minutes or less.
Champions should deliver not just trophies, but celebrity, which meant that a star needed to be a couple things. Sufficiently bankable, in both appeal and performance, to anchor night sessions at the Open and satisfy advertisers. Sufficiently relatable to inspire children to choose tennis over other sports. Sufficiently appealing and trendy for legions of shoppers to purchase his look. This was the machine that previous generations had constructed, and the machine wanted more. Following his big win, Roddick grabbed that bar and performed chin-ups for the next decade almost single-handedly—which I guess are one-arm pull-ups, and that seems about right.
He hosted Saturday Night Live and founded a charity. He married a swimsuit model and started a family. He sold a brand: signature sneaker, signature racquet, some not-inexpensive trucker hats.
Most importantly, on-court, Roddick finished ranked number one in the world. He was pretty much ranked in the top 10 for the rest of the decade. He helped the U. But his most visible achievement was being a finalist four more times at Grand Slams—Wimbledon in , , , and the U. At the age of 30, he put away his racquets. With him went our dominance, our age of empire. Though really it had been over for a decade, basically since the night that Roddick went on Letterman, faux-hawk and all, and talked tennis with a restless aura of expectation, having no idea—him or us—that we would all start wandering the desert the next day.
Why this happened, according to interviews with more than two dozen current and former pros, coaches, and tennis heads, is obvious for a couple reasons and a few that are less pronounced. To understand what went wrong—and how we could find our way again—I went looking for the venue where our comeback might begin. From the parking lot, from all the serves being banged, it sounded like a gun range. Recently, in addition to its center in L. According to a USTA official, it administers a network of over programs, mostly inner city, that combine tennis and school to put kids on a path to college.
And in Carson, every court was full, watched over by hovering minders: coaches, agents, assistants, family. But Federer broke Roddick on the 11th try, winning , 6 , 5 , , in one of the great matches of the last decade. Roddick received a standing ovation afterwards from the Wimbledon crowd, who chanted his name in appreciation of his spectacular, gritty performance. That quality is what set Roddick apart from his American peers in men's tennis over the past 10 years and helped him do more with less than any player I have ever seen.
Roddick didn't have the physical gifts of Del Potro, the strength of Nadal and Djokovic, the grace of Federer or even the unyielding stamina of David Ferrer. What he had was a big serve, nifty net play and a ton of heart. Roddick may have failed to become a dominant player or even win a second major. But through his consistent excellence he finished in the Top 10 for nine consecutive years , his Davis Cup play for the U.
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He had secured that spot three days earlier when he beat Jonas Bjorkman , in the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters , while Juan Carlos Ferrero, who held the spot at the time, had been defeated in the round of 16 by Jiri Novak , It was the icing on top of a great season for Roddick, who had claimed his first Grand Slam title in September, defeating Ferrero in the US Open final , , He was the fourth-youngest player to reach world No 1 in tennis history. Andy Roddick was born in Nebraska, United States in He had his breakthrough season in at the age of 19, when he claimed his first three titles on the ATP Tour, reached a Grand Slam quarter-final for the first time at the US Open lost to Lleyton Hewitt , , , , and finished the season as world No His biggest weapon was undoubtedly his massive serve.
That year he set a record at Roland-Garros during his five-set win against Michael Chang, serving 37 aces. He also had a powerful forehand and displayed great athleticism and fighting spirit on court.
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