In a historic flop for US men’s tennis, no player reached the fourth round of the US Open, or any Grand Slam this year, with the loss of last man standing Tim Smyczek on Sunday at Flushing Meadows.
Spain’s Marcel Granollers beat the 109th-ranked US wild card 6-4, 4-6, 0-6, 6-3, 7-5 after three hours and 24 minutes to reach the last 16 and complete a humiliating and unprecedented Open-era Grand Slam wipeout for American men.
It came on the heels of no US man reaching the third round at Wimbledon for the first time since 1912 and last month, which produced the first week in rankings history without a top-20 US player.
While US boys once dreamed of being the next Jimmy Connors or Andre Agassi, US tennis has been reduced to trying to pilfer the next potential Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods from rival sports to try and reverse the fall from grace.
“We’ve been trying to encourage some of the kids that were going to play basketball or American football to get out on a tennis court,” said former world No. 1 and seven-time Grand Slam singles winner John McEnroe. “We need truly great athletes, need to try to nab some of the kids playing some other sports.”
With a growing challenge from Asia and Eastern Europe, there is a far tougher global landscape than decades past for who those who accept the task of trying to win the first US men’s Grand Slam singles title since Andy Roddick captured the 2003 US Open.
US 13th seed John Isner said after his third-round loss that he was off to watch a national telecast of his beloved collegiate American football squad.
While major US network television coverage beyond the Grand Slams and pre-US Open events is limited, some form of American football is shown all year long.
Toss in such popular sports as basketball, baseball and US stock car racing, and add the growth of soccer and golf, and US tennis is fighting for talent without Grand Slam-champion role models to offer.
SEESAW CONTEST: The Pistons remain top of the Eastern Conference after battling to a win over the Hawks in a game that saw the lead change 27 times The Phoenix Suns on Monday shrugged off an injury to Devin Booker to end the Los Angeles Lakers’ seven-game winning streak with an emphatic 125-108 victory on the road. Booker exited in the first quarter, but the loss of the star point guard did little to halt the flow of Phoenix points over the remainder of the game. Dillon Brooks led the Phoenix scoring with 33 points, while Collin Gillespie added 28 — including eight three-pointers — as the Suns romped to victory. The Lakers were left ruing a colossal 22 turnovers — at a cost of 32 Suns points — on a
Kylian Mbappe on Wednesday scored twice and had an assist as Real Madrid beat Athletic Bilbao 3-0 to end a three-match winless streak in La Liga. Eduardo Camavinga also found the net for Madrid as they moved back within one point of Barcelona, who beat Atletico Madrid 3-1 on Tuesday. Both 19th-round matches were moved forward because Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletic Club and Atletico Madrid are to play in the Supercopa de Espana semi-finals in Saudi Arabia next month. Real Madrid were coming off league draws against Girona, Elche and Rayo Vallecano. It was their second win in their past six matches in
New Zealand yesterday reached 231-9 at stumps on a first day of the first Test against the West Indies shortened by rain after Justin Greaves triggered a middle-order collapse with the wicket of Kane Williamson. New Zealand tumbled from 94-1 to 148-6 on a bowler-friendly wicket after Williamson was dismissed for 52, his 38th Test half-century. Michael Bracewell and Nathan Smith arrested the slide with a 52-run stand for the seventh wicket. Smith eventually fell for 23 and Bracewell for 47. After Matt Henry went for 8, Zak Foulkes and Jacob Duffy were both on 4 when bad light stopped play after 70
IN-HOUSE BUSINESS: LA Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said that the reason for the team’s poor form was not due to Paul, but the player was not a good fit for them Chris Paul’s return stint with the Los Angeles Clippers has come to an abrupt and stunning end, with the franchise parting ways with one of its greatest players in a late-night meeting on Wednesday that adds another layer of drama to the team’s terrible start this season. The news was delivered in a meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, that ended at about 2am, Clippers basketball operations president Lawrence Frank said. Frank said he made the decision to sever ties with Paul on Sunday then told the franchise’s career assist leader that he needed to see him on Tuesday in Atlanta. Frank did not confirm
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