from IOL:
For the first time in the history of tennis rankings, no American man or woman stood inside the Top 10 on either the WTA or ATP list on Monday, a historic low for one of the former world powers of the sport.
The US, which once dominated on the courts, seems to be afflicted by the same disease which is bothering fellow Grand Slam nations Australia (Lleyton Hewitt at 66th is the only Aussie in the Top 100) and Britain, who can only count on world No 4 Andy Murray.
The bottom dropped out of a three-decade run for the US when inactive Serena Williams, who last played at Wimbledon in July, tumbled to 17th on the WTA list after clinging onto 10th for months under the convoluted mathematics of the system.
The 13-time Grand Slam champion has been struck by a series of injuries and illness since winning Wimbledon in 2010 – and has never put her sport as absolute first in her life.
The US tennis footprint has declined dramatically, with the nation that produced the likes of Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Chris Evert, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Tracy Austin, Andy Roddick, Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams, Serena Williams and naturalised European trio of Martina Navratilova, Monica Seles and Ivan Lendl now reduced to just another tennis-playing contender.
American Connnors set the template as the first man to earn the No 1 ranking in 1974. Andy Roddick was the most recent before the rise of the Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal duopoly which has dominated until only recently.
Despite millions in the treasury of the national federation, youth development has not produced a new hope from the teenaged ranks with little of promise coming down the pipeline.
Let's face it: tennis just isn't as cool as ... what are the kids doing these days? The Myspace?
