The USA Report

[Kirijax]

A thread for following the Americans! Being Born in the USA, I always keep an eye out for Americans in the rankings and tournaments. When I first started following tennis back during the French Open in 1979, the Top 10 looked like this:

No. 2 Jimmy Connors
No. 3 John McEnroe
No. 4 Vitas Gerulaitis
No. 5 Roscoe Tanner
No. 7 Eddie Dibbs
No. 8 Arthur Ashe
No. 9 Harold Solomon

Seven of the top ten were Americans! Unbelievable! How times have changed. Now, 36 years later, we have this:

No. 17 John Isner
No. 31 Jack Sock
No. 44 Sam Querrey
No. 52 Steve Johnson
No. 57 Donald Young
No. 72 Tim Smyczek

Things are looking pretty bad but the Americans have bounced back before. Things looked pretty bleak back in the late 80s with the Europeans taking charge and no one taking the place of connors and McEnroe. But boy did the USA come back! Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Michael Chang, Tim Martin and so many others helped America dominate again. While those days may be gone, there is no way a country with so many resources will stay without a Slam champion forever. There are some great young ones coming up and we'll get to see which one will move up and challenge Djokovic and Company for the titles.

El Dude has started a great series on the top countries during the Open Era and of course the USA has been ranked No. 1. National Tennis Careers

If you have any news or results of the Americans, let us know! In the meantime, it looks like we7ll have two seeded Americans in the upcoming Wimbledon tournament. We'll see if they can cause some damage this time around. Go USA!

 

[El Dude]

In Sock we trust.

 

[Kirijax]

The first six months of the year is almost up and so far we have one American with a tour title; Jack Sock at Houston 250. Last year, USA had two titles both by Isner at Auckland and Atlanta. A bunch of 250 tournaments are coming up after Wimbledon so maybe we will see a couple more titles before the year is out.

Sam Querrey is playing in Nottingham this week. He's the 12th seed and faces 5th seed Quevas next. Donald Young and Steve Johnson lost in the first round and Tim Smyczek lost in the 2nd.

John McEnroe is predicting the four young players (Nick Kyrgios, Thanasi Kokkanakis, Jack Sock and Borna Coric) to be the next big wave into the Top Ten. Article

 

[Kirijax]

Querrey beats 5th seed Cuevas and advances to the quarterfinals. Now he has to face 2nd seed Simon, who has been playing very well lately. In the rest of the draw, the seeds are falling left and right so if Querrey can get through Simon, he has a great chance for the title.

 

[Kirijax]

Sam Querrey upsets No. 2 seed Giles Simon 5-7, 7-6(8), 6-4 to advance to the Nottingham semifinals! :clap

He'll face the winner of No. No. 75 Dolgopolov is playing No. 61 Lu.

In the other semifinals, No. 59 Baghdatis plays No. 92 Istomin.

A great opportunity for Querrey!

 

[GameSetAndMath]

So, suddenly Sam is the top dog!

But, I think either Dog or Baggies wins this.

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

17yr old taylor harry fritz..or is it harry taylor fritz.

we could just call him fritz or fritzy or fritzo. fritzy fritzy fritfrit frrrrittzzzzzzzoooooooooooooo zo.

 

[Kirijax]

Sam Querrey comes from behind again and beats Dolgopolov in three sets to advance to the final! Querrey will go up against world No. 92 Denis Istomin in the final. If Querrey wins, it will be his 8th ATP tour title! Go Sam!

ATP article

 

[Kirijax]

Following the American men in 2015 Wimbledon!

John Isner No. 17
Jack Sock No. 31
Sam Querrey No. 36
Steve Johnson No. 52
Donald Young No. 58
Tim Smyczek No. 77
Denis Kudla No. 105

Wimbledon Draw

 

[herios]

Isner, Johnson and Kudla progress in R2, Young loses today

 

[Kirijax]

Kudla upset seeded Cuevas. Good for him!

 

[Kirijax]

Sock/Popsicle also won their first round doubles match to open up the defense of their Wimbledon title.

Doubles Draw

 

[Kirijax]

American men in 2015 Wimbledon draw.

John Isner No. 17
Jack Sock No. 31
Sam Querrey No. 36
Steve Johnson No. 52
Donald Young No. 58
Tim Smyczek No. 77
Denis Kudla No. 105

Of the seven Americans in Wimbledon's main draw, four have advanced to the 2nd round!

No. 17 Isner defeated Go Soeda and will face Matthew Ebden in the second round.
No. 31 Sock had some issues with his knee and was upset in the first round by Sam Groth. Hope he can continue the doubles.
Querrey defeated Igor Sijsling and now faces No. 2 Roger Federer in the 2nd round.
Johnson faces No. 11 Grigor Dimitrov in the 2nd round.
Denis Kudla will go up against Alexander Zverev.
Young was knocked out by Marco Baghdatis and Smyczek was defeated by Fabio Fognini.

 

[Kirijax]

Isner gets through to the third round and Kudla beats Zverev to adavance. With Nishikori out of his bracket, this is a great chance for him to move up! :clap

Querrey takes on the Smooth Operator today.

 

[Kirijax]

After Day Three of Wimbledon, there are three Americans left in the singles draw!

No. 17 John Isner
He defeated Soeda and Ebden and now faces No. 9 seed and U.S. Open Champ Cilic in the third round. Cilic leads their H2H 4-0.

Sam Querrey
He defeated Sijsling and now faces No. 2 Roger Federer. You rarely get a chance like this. Querrey out to shock the world! Federer leads their H2H 2-0.

Denis Kudla
He defeated No. 28 Cuevas and rising star Zverev. He now faces Giraldo, who advanced thanks to Nishikori withdrawing. This is a great chance for Kudla to break into the Top 100 for good! As of now, he is No. on the Live ATP Rankings. This is the first meeting between Kulda and Giraldo.

Go USA!

 

[Kirijax]

Well, it's been a while since I updated this thread so I thought I'd look at where the Americans are after the 2015 USO ended.

On September 14, 2015, there are seven ranked in the Top 100:

No. 13 John Isner
No. 29 Jack Sock
No. 41 Sam Querrey
No. 47 Steve Johnson
No. 51 Donald Young
No. 77 Denis Kudla
No. 88 Rajeev Ram

The Americans have won three tournaments, all 250s:
Jack Sock (Houston)
Rajeev Ram (Newport)]
John Isner (Atlanta)

That's one more title than in 2014.

At the Slams, the best results at each tournament:
Australian Open: John Isner and Steve Johnson (third round)
French Open: Jack Sock (4th round)
Wimbledon: Denis Kudla (4th round)
US Open: John Isner and Donald Young (4th round)

Once again, no American advanced to the quarterfinals of any Slam this year. Isner is in the race for the final spot at the World Tour Finals but he's going to have to get busy and rack up some points if he's going to get in. He's in 11th place, 825 points behind David Ferrer.

In doubles, the Bryans failed for the first time since 2004 to win one of the Slams. In mixed doubles, Mike Bryan won the French Open title with Bethany Mattek-Sands. Sam Querrey was the runner up at the US Open with Mattek-Sands.

Australian Open: Mike Bryan/Bob Bryan, Eric Butorac (third round)
French Open: Mike Bryan/Bob Bryan (final)
Wimbledon: Mike Bryan/Bob Bryan (quarterfinals)
US Open: Sam Querrey/Steve Johnson (semifinals)

Of the young guys, 18-yr-old Jared Donaldson is starting to stand out a bit. He defeated Nicolas Mahut at Cincinnati, lost to Sam Groth in three tie breaks at Winston-Salem, and played in the main draw of the USO. He is now ranked No. 142. He could be the one to watch. Another young one getting a lot of press is Frances Tiafoe. He's 17 yrs old and ranked No. 253. He played in the main draws of the French and USO this year.

In Davis Cup, the USA lost to Great Britain in the first round and they will play Uzbekistan to stay in the world group. Isner and the Bryans are sitting this out so it could be interesting to see how Sock, Querrey, Young and Johnson do.

The struggle continues.

 

[herios]

Before starting, I want just to mention I am not one who usually starts hyping a young teenager, but in the last 2 weeks I am very impressed by a young American's performance.
A few weeks ago, JLB, the scouter of the teenage tennis talent mentioned his name and ever since I am watching what he does on the challenger circuit.
His name is Taylor Fritz, he is the US Open junior boys champion, runner up at the French Open juniors and SF at Wimbledon 2015.

He just started to play the pro circuit this year, being ranked at 1151 in January. Two weeks ago he was ranked 694 but then he won 2 challengers back to back:
1. Sacramento last week defeating Connor Smith (ranked 237), Dustin Brown (ranked 108), Marcos Giron (ranked 428), Matt Reid (ranked 357) and Jared Donaldson (ranked 153).

2. Fairfield this week, defeating Henri Laksonen (r. 340), Tim Smyczek (r. 100), Blaz Kavcic (r. 162),
Blaz Rola (r. 136) and Dustin Brown again in the finals today with 6-3, 6-4.

What I am really happy about, after watching his interview post US Open final, he is a very nice, likeable young man, who did mention he is not setting goals for himself and mentioned he will stay away of the media hype, which we saw in the past does not usually play out (like the next big American player).

I keep my fingers crossed he will remain modest and the media will leave him alone to develop.
Good job young man, he will jump in rankings from 694 to projected 235 in just 2 weeks.
He will be 18y on October 28.

 

[Kirijax]

Before starting, I want just to mention I am not one who usually starts hyping a young teenager, but in the last 2 weeks I am very impressed by a young American's performance.
A few weeks ago, JLB, the scouter of the teenage tennis talent mentioned his name and ever since I am watching what he does on the challenger circuit.
His name is Taylor Fritz, he is the US Open junior boys champion, runner up at the French Open juniors and SF at Wimbledon 2015.

He just started to play the pro circuit this year, being ranked at 1151 in January. Two weeks ago he was ranked 694 but then he won 2 challengers back to back:
1. Sacramento last week defeating Connor Smith (ranked 237), Dustin Brown (ranked 108), Marcos Giron (ranked 428), Matt Reid (ranked 357) and Jared Donaldson (ranked 153).

2. Fairfield this week, defeating Henri Laksonen (r. 340), Tim Smyczek (r. 100), Blaz Kavcic (r. 162),
Blaz Rola (r. 136) and Dustin Brown again in the finals today with 6-3, 6-4.

What I am really happy about, after watching his interview post US Open final, he is a very nice, likeable young man, who did mention he is not setting goals for himself and mentioned he will stay away of the media hype, which we saw in the past does not usually play out (like the next big American player).

I keep my fingers crossed he will remain modest and the media will leave him alone to develop.
Good job young man, he will jump in rankings from 694 to projected 235 in just 2 weeks.
He will be 18y on October 28.

Good post, herios. I have also been hearing his name more and more. He really caught some attention this week. Kinda looks like Sampras. (lol) The two I mentioned earlier, plus Jared Donaldson and now Fritz keep stepping up but none have made any big results yet. Still too early, but the next couple of years could be very interesting for American tennis.

 

[Luxilon Borg]

In Sock we trust.

Slappy? Kill me now.uzzled

 

[Luxilon Borg]

Before starting, I want just to mention I am not one who usually starts hyping a young teenager, but in the last 2 weeks I am very impressed by a young American's performance.
A few weeks ago, JLB, the scouter of the teenage tennis talent mentioned his name and ever since I am watching what he does on the challenger circuit.
His name is Taylor Fritz, he is the US Open junior boys champion, runner up at the French Open juniors and SF at Wimbledon 2015.

He just started to play the pro circuit this year, being ranked at 1151 in January. Two weeks ago he was ranked 694 but then he won 2 challengers back to back:
1. Sacramento last week defeating Connor Smith (ranked 237), Dustin Brown (ranked 108), Marcos Giron (ranked 428), Matt Reid (ranked 357) and Jared Donaldson (ranked 153).

2. Fairfield this week, defeating Henri Laksonen (r. 340), Tim Smyczek (r. 100), Blaz Kavcic (r. 162),
Blaz Rola (r. 136) and Dustin Brown again in the finals today with 6-3, 6-4.

What I am really happy about, after watching his interview post US Open final, he is a very nice, likeable young man, who did mention he is not setting goals for himself and mentioned he will stay away of the media hype, which we saw in the past does not usually play out (like the next big American player).

I keep my fingers crossed he will remain modest and the media will leave him alone to develop.
Good job young man, he will jump in rankings from 694 to projected 235 in just 2 weeks.
He will be 18y on October 28.

Good post, herios. I have also been hearing his name more and more. He really caught some attention this week. Kinda looks like Sampras. (lol) The two I mentioned earlier, plus Jared Donaldson and now Fritz keep stepping up but none have made any big results yet. Still too early, but the next couple of years could be very interesting for American tennis.

My friend coached Fritz when he was 14. He was a chubby short kid. Hard to believe he is, what 6 foot 4 now. I saw him play juniors too. He was playing like an adult by 15.