He’s not wrong entirely. Roddick would have 4-5 slams if Fed hadn’t been around
“I don’t think it’s a flag issue, it’s a Novak, Rafa, Federer issue; they are a big problem for everyone” - Frances Tiafoe on lack of American winners of men's singles Grand Slam titles
At a press conference at the 2022 Citi Open, Frances Tiafoe was asked about the fact that it has been a long time since an American won a men's singles Grand Slam title.www.sportskeeda.com
The young American was recently asked about why US men's tennis has had so little success in the 21st century and his response was essentially, US tennis isn't bad and it's not a nationality matter, but rather we have to face big 3 like everyone else.
However, despite facing big 3 is as big of a mountain as any, how many American players have been directly stopped from winning slams due to the big 3? Roddick was stopped by Federer but do we consider Roddick to be big 3 era or just Fed era? If Berdych/Tsonga/Ferrer say they were stopped by big 3 from winning slams I'd understand that but no US player since the creation of the big 3 has been on the Berdych/Tsonga/Ferrer level.
The only instance I can think of where an American player might've had a chance to win w/o big 3's presence is 2019 Wimbledon when Rafa beat Querrey and in a no-big 3 world, Querrey would've only needed to beat Nishikori and RBA to win the title. Frtiz would've likely lost to Kyrgios without Djokodal in the picture this year
I think someone hit the nail on the head when they said very few people are playing tennis, with more lucrative sports available.
Nadal was injured, genuinely
He's still tough to beat on one leg.
That’s obviously the only reason…..
This is why pickleball is popular right now, we have 4 out of the top 5 in the world right now ! Go USA !
On his own admittance he had a burger condition rather than a heart condition
Nadal comes from the wealthiest family on Majorca, money is utterly immaterial to him. Reeling off his prize money in 2022 is important to you, not to Rafa, who would be egregiously rich even had he never touched a tennis racket.
“I don’t think it’s a flag issue, it’s a Novak, Rafa, Federer issue; they are a big problem for everyone” - Frances Tiafoe on lack of American winners of men's singles Grand Slam titles
At a press conference at the 2022 Citi Open, Frances Tiafoe was asked about the fact that it has been a long time since an American won a men's singles Grand Slam title.
The young American was recently asked about why US men's tennis has had so little success in the 21st century and his response was essentially, US tennis isn't bad and it's not a nationality matter, but rather we have to face big 3 like everyone else.
Roddick won a Slam*, not "Slams" in plural. And he won his only Slam title without facing Federer, in the pre-Big 3 era.
Rod Laver never faced Fed either. He’s a bum.
Im sure doesnt need the money. But most guys who are on the tour do. Thats the point. The amount guys get paid in tennis is nothing compared to a a decent player in any of the big 4 sports. Or even a really good US soccer player. There are US soccer players in Europe now making more as far as actual paychecks than anybody on the ATP tour. There are 72 players in the MLS which is a third rate soccer league making a million a year or more. The league minimum for which is for journey men in the big four is now over 500,000 a year. The average salary in the NBA is now 8.25 million a year. Thats the average. Stephen Curry is making 54 million a year IN SALARY. I don't think you could make that much in Tennis if you entered every tournament in a calendar year and won all of them.
323 million people = Russia + UK + Argentina + Croatia + Austria + Switzerland
Part of the problem with this analysis is that tennis Pros are not evenly distributed in a population. Numbers of Pros is related to the number of motivated parents willing to push their kids at tennis (a la Richard Williams) or at minimum support their kids in tennis, which is not commonly done.
Yes. Unless you are talking doubles, tennis is more of an individual sport. Sure, there are teams, but when you play you are on the court all by yourself. Not like basketball, football, or baseball when you have buddies on the field with you. Less sense of camaraderie to teenagers who must choose the sport they play. Not to mention the old negative aspersion in the US that tennis is a sport for sissies. cough, cough. Bill Tilden, cough, cough.
99.9 percent of the kids out there have no idea who Bill Tilden is and kids these days don't really care if the older generation thinks they're "sissies" which is why so many of them are happy to play e-sports.
*GS title
Blake and Fish as talented players is certainly a fresh take.
