I f you think it wise not to get on won a Grand Slam singles title and that, until this year, SamQuerrey, John Isner and Jack Sock were the only active Americans who had ever set foot in the top 20 of the men’s world singles rankings. “The press has been extremely negative towards American tennis, extremely negative, ridiculous, to be honest,” Opelka saidwhen asked about the state of themen’s game in his home country. “When it comes the wrong side of Reilly Opelka, who stands 6ft 11in tall and weighs more than 16 stone, here is a piece of advice. Do not point out to the 24-year-old American that it has been 19 years since any of his countrymen to the press always being so critical of US tennis, I don’t have time to even hear any of those comments. We have some unbelievable guys. Themedia and the press have been extra harsh, I think, on American tennis success. They have been comparing it to an unrealistic era. The game is different. The game has changed. American tennis is in a great spot.” The game certainly has changed from the heady days of the 1990s, when Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, JimCourier andMichael Chang were regularly winning Grand Slam titles and dominating the world rankings.
Andy Roddickwas the last American to win a Grand Slam singles title, at the US Open in 2003. Since Roddick lost in the 2009 Wimbledon final, the best that American singles players havemanaged at Grand Slam level was in 2017 and 2018, when Querrey and Isner reached theWimbledon semi- finals. It is a remarkably barren spell for the nation that is by somemargin themost successful in tennis history. However, there are signs of amajor revival. In the first twomonths of this year Opelka and Taylor Fritz became the first Americans other than Querrey, Isner and Sock to break into the world’s top 20 since James Blake in 2006. Fritz’s rapid rise continued inMarchwhen hemade the world’s top 10 by winning his first Masters 1000 title at IndianWells. There were 12 Americanmen in the world’s top 100 after IndianWells, most of themyoung players with their best years likely to be ahead of them. Of the top seven Americans – all of whomare ranked in the top 50 – six are aged 24 or under, with 36-year-old John Isner the exception. Opelka, Fritz, Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul are all aged 24, while Sebastian Korda and Jenson Brooksby are just 21. Maxime Cressy, a 24-year-old American, also broke into the world’s top 100 at the start of the
year with somememorable performances in Australia. Meanwhile 26-year-old Mackenzie McDonaldwon the ATP’s Comeback Player of the Year award at the end of 2021 after climbing 138 places to finish the season at No 55 following his return after hamstring surgery. The best Americans of recent times have tended to be bigmenwith huge serves and forehands tomatch. Opelka and Fritz, the first of the newwave tomake the top 20, fit that mould. Fritz stands 6ft 5in tall and weighs 13st 8lb, though even he is dwarfed by Opelka, who shows remarkable agility for such a bigman. Isner and Opelka joke about themselves as “servebots”. Isner says there are “not many secrets to our games”, which “definitely start with our serve, trying to create scoreboard pressure”. However, Opelka insists: “Anyone who knows anything about tennis knows that the ball comes back nomatter how good your serve is. Maybe there are one or two matches a year where Isner and I pitch a perfect game andwe don’t have to hit too many balls. Isner’s more than serve, as am I. You don’t get to be 20 in the worldwith just one shot. It’s just silly. It’s ridiculous.” BothOpelka and Fritz have had setbacks on their paths to the top. Opelkawas on the brink of a place in theworld’s top 100 five
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