NEW YORK (AP) — If there's such a thing as momentum from tournament to tournament in tennis, the American men have some right now.
Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul certainly are getting within reach of ending the country's unprecedented Grand Slam men's title drought, so maybe they're finally ready to win one of those trophies — if anyone other than Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz is ever going to again, that is — at the U.S. Open, which gets going Sunday.
“We have a really
strong group. We’re closer; the closest we’ve been in a long time,” said Fritz, a 27-year-old from California who is seeded No. 4 in New York and was the the runner-up to Sinner there a year ago. “We have several players who are at the caliber it takes to win a Grand Slam title. We’re very close. But that last little bit is obviously the hardest part of it.”
Fritz's appearance in the 2024 U.S. Open final was the first time in 15 years that a man from the United States even earned the right to play for a major singles championship. Fritz, No. 6 Shelton, who is 22, and No. 17 Tiafoe, 27, each has participated in Slam semifinals twice; No. 14 Paul, 28, has been that far once.
“Taylor getting to the final of the U.S. Open is going to fuel Tommy, Ben and Frances. ... That’s always the way it’s been with this generation: They spark each other,” said U.S. Davis Cup captain Bob Bryan, a 16-time Grand Slam doubles champion who is being inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Saturday. “They see themselves making the final of a Grand Slam now. It is not unattainable. It’s not impossible.”
All four have spent time in the top 10. Indeed, when Shelton cracked that milestone in June, he joined Fritz and Paul to give their nation three representatives in that elite group for the first time since 2006.
American women, meanwhile, occupy four of the top nine places in the WTA rankings and five of the top 11. They keep earning spots in title matches — at least one has participated in each of the past four Slam finals, winning two.
“The women have been carrying for a very, very long time,” Fritz acknowledged with a smile.
It helped, of course, to have Serena Williams — 23 major singles championships — and Venus Williams — seven — but there also were titles collected by Coco Gauff, Madison Keys, Sofia Kenin and Sloane Stephens since 2017.
Now, perhaps, it's the men's turn?
“For sure, there's going to be a lot of hype around them going into the U.S. Open,” said Jessica Pegula, the American who was the runner-up to No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka at Flushing Meadows last year. “I know they love playing there and want to do well there, too."
Been quite a while, as everyone knows: Andy Roddick's U.S. Open triumph in 2003 was the most recent Slam title anywhere for a man from the country — a fact the current crop has heard more often than they'd care to remember.
“I think it just comes in waves. I really do. And so you will have people kind of freaking out because there’s a gap,” said Keys, who won the Australian Open in January. “And then you have a big group that comes along together, because they got to compete against each other and push each other in juniors. To expect that every five to seven years, it’s not realistic.”
There are other young U.S. men inside the top 100, too, including No. 31 Brandon Nakashima, who is 24; No. 32 Alex Michelsen, 20; No. 50 Learner Tien, 19; No. 81 Ethan Quinn, 21; No. 83 Sebastian Korda, 25; and No. 91 Jenson Brooksby, 24.
“What you can do is give yourself shots at it,” said DC Open chairman Mark Ein, a former member of the U.S. Tennis Association Board. “And right now, we’ve got a lot of shots at it.”
___
Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
