The day the New York (AP) US Open quarterfinals began without leaving Americans single-first happened at the first event in 1881-the person responsible for finding and grooming the country’s Grand Slam champion is bright Look at the face.
Indeed, Martin Blackman, general manager of player development for the United States Tennis Association, admitted in an interview at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday that it was very disappointing that there were no men or women playing for nearly a week. For that, there are no ifs, ands, buts. “
And after a while, he started the sentence with one of the following words: But when we look at where we’re heading, especially on the side of men, we’re in the best place we’ve ever been. 15 to 20 years. “
His legitimacy for it is partly in the numbers. There are 14 Americans in the top 100 of the ATP ranking, the highest since 1996. The 13 men who participated in the second round last week were the highest since 15 in 1994.
“There’s a huge group out there, just no World Beater,” said American Riley Opelka, who was seeded in 22nd place and lost in the fourth round on Monday. “I don’t think the Sampras-Agassi era will be ruled that way again. It’s unusual for any country.”
It’s also part of Blackman’s commitment to things.
Simply put, there is a lot of competition from everywhere.
“In the 70’s, there were five countries playing professional tennis,” he said. He wore a blue jacket with a white capital letter “USA” on his heart. “It’s a completely different world. At least from our point of view, American tennis standards haven’t dropped. Our standards are always Grand Slam titles and top 10 players. But the challenge is doubled. The game is more global than ever. “
Part of his optimism comes from vision tests.
In women’s matches, I like what I see from 21-year-old Sofia Kenin (2020 Australian Open champion who missed the US Open in the COVID-19 test) and 20-year-old Amanda Anisimova (2019 French Open). Blackman will be ready in a year or two, including (semi-finalist), 17-year-old Coco Gauff (2021 French Open quarter-finalist), and Robin Montgomery (who won the second round of junior matches on Tuesday). Another teenager’s crop or Hailey Baptiste who thinks.
The men he expects include 20-year-old Jenson Brooksby, who flirt with the upset of No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the fourth round on Monday night. 21-year-old Sebastian Korda reached the fourth round in Wimbledon in July, but stopped during the first round in New York due to food poisoning. And 20-year-old Brandon Nakashima defeated the highest-ranked American John Isner in the first round.
In addition, Brooksby, 24-year-old Opelka, and 23-year-old Frances Tiafoe gave three men for the first time in ten years in the fourth round of the US Grand Slam tournament.
Djokovic was impressed by Brooksby and told the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium that he had won 1-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-2. “America certainly has a bright future for tennis.”
The US Open was a great opportunity for new people to sit at the table, probably due to the absence of Serena Williams, at least in part (“There was no Queen here”). That’s how Blackman said), Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Djokovic is the only male quarterfinal with the title of Grand Slam singles (he has 20) and Barbora Kletikova is the only female quarterfinal with one (French Open this year) open). Karolina Pliskova is the only other woman to have made one major final in the last eight years. She won second place at the 2016 US Open and Wimbledon in July.
In addition, qualifying and reaching the quarter-finals were Botik van der Zandschulp of the Netherlands and Emaradukanu of the United Kingdom. The three quarter-finalists are teenagers. La Ducanu and Carlos Alcaraz of Spain are 18 years old. Leylah Fernandez of Canada turned 19 on Monday.
Of course, Blackman is well aware that he needs to go back to 2003 to find the American Grand Slam title of Andy Roddick’s victory in New York at the US Open and elsewhere.
“See, we all win. That’s our culture, it’s our business, and everything we do is, after all, very binary. Win or lose. Either, “Blackman said.
“We need it to get better results in next year’s slums,” he said.
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Other AP Tennis: https: //apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports
For the first time, no US Open quarterfinal player has a US Singles player | WGN Radio 720
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