WHEN WILL THE USTA & AMERICA START CATCHING UP WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD IN TENNIS????

I GUESS THE REAL QUESTION IS WILL IT HAPPEN IN OUR LIFETIME? PROBABLY NOT UNLESS U GET AN ENTIRE NEW USTA STAFF & FOCUS!!!****&&*^&*%

Several great answers already :-)

Other countries have figured out how to build a tennis player, and it's not as costly as building a soccer team or a basketball team, etc. Hard work is great, but it's not enough, all by itself. You must have excellent teaching & coaching, a place to work out and play, tournament experience, funding, etc. Academies are fabulous for building up skill and experience.

How about when we start building clay or Har-Tru courts all over the country?

We aren't doing exceptionally bad. We have six players in the top 100. Most countries don't have that many. We just aren't as dominant as we used to be. Australia has the same problem.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Rankings/Singles.aspx?...

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Rankings/Singles.aspx?...

I have a theory that really great players like Kramer, Sampras, Agassi, Courier, Chang, Ashe, Smith, Connors, Williams sisters, etc etc were NOT developed by the USTA, but by individuals, often family members, parents. OR, they had access to superb coaching for long formative periods of time, as Arthur Ashe did with Dr Johnson.

Good question :-)

Zombie's answer is not accurate. I am a teaching pro and our outreach into the schools is tremendous. We provide clinics to children in their PE classes, then we provide curriculum to the PE teachers for them to manage a two week tennis class in their gyms, and also provide the schools with racquets and balls to use for their classes.

The problem with tennis in the US has more to do with the fact that we have other major sports that players branch into such as baseball, basketball and football. Children these days are almost required to be specialized in their approach to any sport just to be "passable" at playing it. When I was growing up in the 80s it was common for a child to play many sports and not really excel at one. Now, because of the stiffness of the competition players are spending their time focusing on one sport instead of branching out. That means that children that want to play tennis HAVE to want to play tennis and not prefer another sport such as football or baseball...

Also, many times players that could be good at tennis in the US face the fact that there are a ton of players from all over the world that want to compete in the pros that aren't quite good enough. Many colleges are out seeking for players the world over to fill their ranks with potential world ranked players and ignoring the US as a recruiting ground. When it comes to a student trying to decide to play a sport they could play something like Baseball, Basketball or Football and have a chance to plat at college and get a scholarship or they could look at tennis and realize that they really don't have a chance to play, thus deciding on another sport.

Until the USTA and the NCAA come to some sort of an agreement on the number of foreign players allowed to be on a collegiate team, the US will continue to suffer in the tennis world.

We're not entirely behind. I mean, sadly we don't have anyone special yet, but you can say the same for a lot of other countries. We do need to popularize tennis though and recognie that it's not a lame or feminine sport (I live in a part of texas where it's relatively big though). I hope for the day when America starts producing more energy saving finesse players rather than aggressive servers like Isner who pound the heck out of the ball.

Not happening -- the USTA has very poor - and often nonexistent - outreach into schools and recreation departments that can introduce the game to youngsters & seems to only care about junior players who are coached by well-connected individuals that are associated with tennis academies.

Tennis is not that popular or common in the U.S like football or basketball. Tennis is extremely popular and common in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Russia and South American countries, Chile and Argentina.

When Americans get a work ethic.

So. Never.

l