Tennis success in other countries, including Spain, Argentina, Serbia, Croatia, Russia, Germany, Chile, France, etc. seems to start with a few factors:
1. Soccer (futbol) is the most popular sport in many of the countries. Not basketball, baseball, football, NASCAR, track & field, etc.
2. The remaining athletic talent that doesn't exclusively choose soccer as their primary sport, chooses tennis as an alternative much more frequently than an American would choose tennis as a first alternative to American football, for example.
3. Every country I mentioned above starts tennis training on red clay. Red clay requires better point management/shot selection; better fitness; less reliance on first serve; less reliance on winning forehand; better drop shots; more control of spins; higher strike zone; hitting while sliding; hitting off the outside foot on the forehand; use of the inside-out forehand.
4. From clay, the transition to slow to fast-paced hard courts is easier. Case in-point: Corretja, Moya, Kuerten, Rios, Kafelnikov, Safin, NADAL, & FEDERER all winning Master's Series hard court tournaments and/or reaching hard court grand slam finals.
5. Compare this to Henman, Hewitt, Philipoussis, Sampras, Roddick, Blake, Rafter, etc. All super athletes who grew up training on hard courts and/or grass courts and their success on clay has been infrequent at best (Sampras: 1 masters series clay tournament win & 1 french SF; Rafter: 1 french SF, Henman:1 french SF).
SOLUTION:
-find some better athletes, just look around a typical country club in the US or United Kingdom and you will rarely find an amazing athlete on a tennis court (compared to a high school or college-aged track, basketball, or football athlete)
-send them to europe as part of a deal with the USTA or another organization that will support the athletes
Any other ideas??? I'd love to hear them.
I for one am not too discourage because I just like to see good tennis regardless what boundaries/nations in which the player is born.
