What Happened To American Tennis?
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 26. 07. 2024
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The last American grand slam champion on the men's side was Andy Roddick winning the US Open in 2003. Many tennis fans are wondering, "What happened to American Tennis?" In today's video, I present some statistics on American tennis and what could be done better to develop more great American tennis players.
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Good topic. Any thoughts on how Croatia excels in many sports relative to their country population? Any insights that America can also utilize?
As far as I know Canada does not have the European model (nor the American?) Yet we seem to be producing some good talent. Can you expound on the reasons?
@@Dom-yv4nq i think canada has been lucky. before raonic, it was pretty sparse. wow andreescu! hope she recovers fitness and form. a couple of young players at a community club, used to play with raonic as juniors.
great insight into the tennis system! i suspected some of what you said from commentators's remarks, but always wondered.
the american ranking/tournament system hasn't changed from before -mcenroe, agassi, sampras.. has it?
tennis has lost popularity in N.america... it's like a #7 sport or something. whereas in the rest of the world, tennis popularity has risen, even #2 or 3 in some countries.
@@LaBambaCL I'd beg to differ and say Canada producing more and more top quality playes has more to do with systematic action. Tennis is definitely not as popular as hockey, basketball, soccer etc. So I'm forced to think Tennis Canada is doing good work.
Nothing sadder than empty courts on a nice day
Not if you were planning to play on them lol.
I love it, because I get to play without waiting.
Pesky job.
Except perhaps courts where the tennis lines have been removed and pickleball lines drawn.
pandemic... basically closed tennis clubs in my area... hopefully the world will get out of this in 2021
Itâs no wonder the Laver Cup is organized as Team âEuropeâ vs Team âWorldâ.
Any time I'm playing indoor courts, it's usually older adults playing reserving all of the court times. It's an expensive sport to get lessons, develop and train younger players year round. Also, USTA point system is a joke. USTA matches are usually older adults who's ranking vs skill is all over the place. Also, American tennis needs to add the 'cool' factor like the more popular American sports to attract younger kids.
Honestly, as a usta junior tennis player myself There are kids that I have beaten in straight sets that are ranked 400-500 spots ahead of me nationally And are rated as 5 Utr. It is a joke, it is very frustrating.
@@NS-ct4zb It really baffles me that the busts is still using the crappy and outdated point system where kids just have to travel to places with the lowest competition and win to get a high ranking. This is the biggest reason US Tennis is a joke because instead of preparing kids for the next level and forcing them to play higher competition to get ahead, all they are teaching them is an easy way to the top when really the competition just gets harder. For example, I had signed up for an L2 national tournament and when I didnât qualify I checked through the kids who did. I was surprised to find kids with significantly lower utr ratings and significantly lower tennisrecruiting.net rankings qualifying for the main draw of such an important event. I looked through these kids history and found that to get such a high ranking, these kids were playing tournaments with 4-5 kids and easy competition. That yielded a lot of points for example an L5 event.
Can't be "COOL" without black men. Look at the earlier NBA days.
We need an American male to finally get a slam or make it to semis/qf
@@hsy2448 you mean like Sam querrey at Wimby 2017?
USTA needs overhaul
And that doesn't mean simply messing around with the website lol
@@JackSmith-mj3pi đđ facts
Srsly. They took away section rankings for juniors, so now all you see is your national ranking (which is a lot more discouraging to look at)
@@icebear326 wow that's really true? A huge boost in confidence for me growing up was looking at State and Regional rankings.
Overhaul! i follow the $$ ...i used to work for USTA 20 years ago same thing was being said then too...
Man...I'm pretty jealous. I'm in LA and almost every court is almost always full with people tryna kick each other off the courts
Was the same in DC.
Same in metro detroit
@@saravana4355 Yeah courts are packed here in MI.
I think empty courts might be a Florida phenomenon. I think they have a lot more courts per capita than a lot of other places.
Pickleball courts are the courts that are full here. and im not happy about it.
Spot on. When I played as a kid in the U.S. you had to win against a higher ranked player to move up. His statement about the USTA point system is absolutely right...total smoke and mirrors. The USTA is very slow to respond to change but UTR tournament competition is forcing it now. USTA rankings are currently so meaningless that most college coaches look only at a player's UTR rating and completely ignore USTA rankings. Two of my kids played NCAA Division 1 and they regularly smoked kids who had way higher USTA rankings...it was ridiculous. When my son won the state championship everyone was shocked because he was ranked 89th in USTA, but that's because I put him in just a few of their tounaments to see how he played in his age class. I played with him continually, took him to a local college to play their players...one of them was 76th in Futures, 17th in Australian mens. In the state championship my son played the kid that was ranked #1 in USTA and my son took the first set 6-1 in seventeen minutes. That's what the USTA point system produces. USTA has just this year changed some of what they're doing but it won't help that much. The European club process and adult tournaments is the best way to go for juniors to excel, but the NCAA, for American kids, is very prejudiced against American kids who win money or work for money in tennis before college and have blocked college scholarships...but not for foreign players. Needs to be a level playing field. Great video...I agree with every word.
You also missed a crucial reason is that as a young person, you're pushed into other sports like football, basketball, baseball, or even soccer, or track. Tennis was seen as an after thought. A wealthy person activity with private clubs, private lessons, and etc. Similar to lacrosse. Not to mention the pay of a pro athlete in top 100 in tennis versus other sports. You could be on the practice team of the NFL and make more than a tennis player. Yea you get the occasional Williams story or Tiafoe but that's a rarity.
But back to schooling, some of us did tennis for fun, but we focused on the more "serious" sports especially when it came to college. Little leagues due to the social nature of it. Some of my friends even went pro.
When he talked about the success of women's tennis, I thought he was going to parlay into that aspect of it as well when talking about men's tennis and the comparative lack of success. Because you're absolutely right. Women generally don't have the same access to other sports of popularity that men do.
@@alexanderroberts5223 agree... if you are a girl, soccer, tennis, volleyball are popular along with gymnastics and dance...
That's bit of a cop out excuse. Pretty much every country has this problem
Do you think European do not play other sports?
@@dgib1694 in Europe there are not as many sports where you get paid a lot compares to tennis, as there are in USA (maybe soccer and rugby). In USA baseball, football, basketball and hockey players make so much money that it's unreal. Just look at the NBA, where a mediocre bench player makes 1.5 - 2 millions a year... it's insane. Frances Tiafoe has made almost 4 millions in his entire carreer (5 years).
We say the same thing in Australia. What happened to Aus Tennis, a country where Tennis courts are free or very affordable to access. Tennis Australia (TA) is so focused on the top end players and the AO that grass roots Tennis is dying. As a coach I don't see any genuine top juniors coming through the ranks. No wonder the game is dominated by Europeans.
Some Europeans! What happened to Swedish tennis? Australian tennis is still rather well off compared to us.
As a Serbian I see the opposite happening
Tennis is becoming highly popular here and more and more courts are popping up
Also there are more and more juniors here
Thats the Djokovic effect
@@AP-ec8os Definitely. We had the Borg effect back in the 80's, so I expect plenty of good players to come out of Serbia in the coming decade.
@@AP-ec8os Big thanks to Djokovic
@@Apanblod ofc having a Star like Djokovic or Nadal helps, but its not everything, not Even close, it can fade away easily, those countries are capitalizing the attention these stars brought to tennis and are working everyday to develop new talents with new ideas and tacticts their players are wayy more complete overall and have better foundations than the average american/Australia players brings nowadays, if it's was just the Star power we would have seen some riskng Star in switzerland after having Federer and Wawrinka, but i don't see much upcoming Swiss players with that potential
Very easy to understand breakdown - love hearing about personal stories and experiences that you won't find in other tennis channels.
Hi, I enjoyed Ericâs TED talk!
Jim Loehr did a great study of various sports based on different variables, and the conclusion was that Tennis is the hardest most difficult sport to succeed in out of all sports in the study.
So youâre right, the most exceptional athletes can make it, but the hurdles ahead are just too big for most.
Itâs so much more fun to be a weekly warrior
This dude isn't even from the United States and yet his passion for US tennis far exceeds the vast, VAST majority of the population.
I'm also going to say that you could switch about "tennis" for "soccer" in this video and it almost completely applies all the same. European development models run circles around what we do in America.
European development: You gonna go pro yet or what?
Player: I am 10...
European development: So yes?
Haha, what a ridiculous statement. America was by far the biggest tennis nation for decades, America has never even been top 25 in soccer.
American development models are far superior in basketball, football, and baseball. We simply have different tastes in sport.
@@GodofDisco why do you have by far the biggest and most advanced tennis programs then? largest amount of players? typical American arrogance from you. The same arrogance that eventually will start the next world war.
@@frankhaula bruh, no need to go on the attack, oh and also, I will say that most of the top tennis players come from programs in america (more specifically Florida), but they will register for another country, so it is just based off of point of view.
Very sad to see those courts empty. Funnily I was explaining to a friend of mine who just took up tennis, that I used to copy the serve of guys like Andy Roddick and Sampras and explained how US tennis was big powerhouse once upon a time and hasn't been for a while.
This video is a great help to understanding what's happened.
Side note, I am not American, I am Samoan and live and coach in Tonga. Tennis isn't very popular here and we don't even have a single club in the country
Thank you for this excellent analysis of the American tennis situation. My wife and I became obsessed with tennis in our 50âs when we moved to a community with 5 outdoor courts. Meanwhile, the park that hosts 3 of these courts built 4 picklelball courts and they are always full of doubles teams - 16 players - plus another 10 waiting to play. Meanwhile, once the autumn-winter temps drop below 50, all the fair weather tennis players in our neighborhood disappear and we have the courts all to ourselves. But an interesting phenomenon has occurred over the past two winter months - defectors from the pickle ball ranks spotted us playing in conditions as cold as 30F, and came over to join us, three of them, realizing that they love tennis more than pickle ball. Weâre thrilled to find new partners and are learning a patience with our own games by accepting these new players and offering them insights into our techniques, or lack thereof. We do see young kids, early teens, playing the game, but what you described doesnât exist in our region, yet, either - tournaments offering national ranking points.
Pickleball to Tennis đđ
As a kid growing up in the least populated borough of NYC in the 70's, there were nearly no public tennis courts near us, but one of the oldest tennis clubs in America, Westerleigh, was within walking distance of our house. It was/is a private, members only club and was beyond my family's and our neighborhood friends means to join. So, we played pickup baseball, basketball, American football and rode our bicycles all over the borough (Staten Island). I wish that I had learned tennis at a young age, rather than in my 30's. I might have given Michael Chang a run for his money. : )
The levels and maturity as a player are spot on. Great vid
I wish I can be there to play. It's hard to find tennis court in my area.
same
same scene.
where yall live?
I'm actually very impressed that the czech republic has 9 wta players in the top 100 for such a small country
US is smaller
True. They also drew inspiration from players like Navratilova, Mandlikova, Novotna and Lendl.
@@rushrush1209 and Berdych & Ć tÄpĂĄnek, if we take only retired players...
Great vid! Really descriptive and very accurate! Once you explained it all started to make a lot more sense
@Intuitive Tennis , you nailed it on your synopsis. Here's a little bit of my tennis journey growing up in the US.
I played alot of junior tennis in U12-U14 holding national ranking in the top 100. I started playing men's tournaments and in the US, the only adult draw I could enter was Men's Open (typically NTRP 5.0+). We had a few 5.0 level guys in my area which were great to train with that young. At 14-15 years old, I started to beat them and win Open division tournaments but that's where it ended. High school tennis in America is just an 'activity' for 99% of the participants and there were no higher level tournaments to play in my area.
Three years later, I got to finally play better players at a D1 university where I was the only American on the team (even my head coach and assistant coach were foreign). In one season, I improved drastically. You're 100% correct in saying that to get better, you have to play better players.
So, I think in those very critical tennis development years from 14-18, the US system lacks and your only real option is a tennis academy. To improve the competitiveness for average Americans attending public/private schools, there needs to be an incentive. That incentive should be Division 1 University scholarships but those are extremely difficult to get with the influx of foreign players since they're all just better. I was in my D1 coaches back yard and he hadn't even heard of me since he only recruited overseas. Yet, I walked in at #6/7 out of 10 guys. Not really sure how you fix recruiting without reserving at least a few scholarships for US players. Loved all my teammates, but kinda sucks for US players trying to go D1 where they could really develop. (John Isner and Steve Johnson are great examples of US players maturing playing NCAA)
This was a very interesting perspective that I had not heard previously. Thanks for posting.
I gained a lot of insight from listening to your talk today. Thanks!
Thank you Dr đ
1. team sports have become even more popular and professionalized, forcing kids to specialize early and removing them from the talent pool; 2. europe's adult tournament network is fantastic and even the ITFs are more frequent and easier to get to...I would venture that living in Germany and traveling to Italy to play a tournament is cheaper than living in South Carolina and traveling to California for a tournament...3. an American kid can play their entire career, all the way through college, and NEVER HIT ON A CLAY COURT.
Federer even started playing tennis on clay lol
I`m Brazilian, i play mostly on clay, but i have played on HCs and i can say that clay is the best surface for beginners and the one that tests the skill of the players the most.
@@user-tz8ze3tp7m It's easier to learn how to speed up and flatten out shots for faster surfaces than it is to learn how to slow down and develop point strategy for clay.
In taiwan, no grass court in my life, 90% of them are clay and hard
1. Applies to Europe, even on the WAY bigger scale.
2. Europeâs athletes are fantastic*
3. Iâm from Europe and I have never played on a hard court. It goes both ways.
4. Americans have over 4 times more tennis players than Germany - European country with the most tennis players.
another thing is for women Tennis is one of the top sports for making money but for men's in the USA there are a lot of other sports like football soccer basketball baseball hockey.
Great information!!!
Couldn't agree with you more. I lived in Germany for a year and played club volleyball. I was good enough to play for the second team in my area (near Dortmund), but we got to practice with the first team. This had a huge impact on my development as a player such that when I returned to the US I was able to play at the highest club level available and be competitive. I think as you say having a club style environment for these sports could help the US compete better, and if it means we disentangle amateur athletics from the education system (whether in high school or college) then all the better. Probably would never happen for big sports like football and basketball but for others I could see it working very well.
Well said
This is a great video. Thanks Nick
Great video, I totally agree with you. Thanks for doing it
Thank you for this post, it was very insightful and helpful. My son is 15 yrs old and started playing USTA jr tournament 3 yrs ago. He comes from a free community base tennis program where they introduced poor inner city kids to tennis (basically just had them hit balls w/o any real training) when he was in 3rd grade. We were never told about the USTA tournament and found out by a mistake. My son fell in love with tennis and worked his ass off to become one of the top Boys 16's in New York. I can honestly say the USTA ranking system is a joke and became even worse with the new changes that took place in Jan 2021. Also all the major club / programs basically cater to a select few players and use the rest of the kids as hitting partners for their select players. There are a lot of good players who really want to play at a higher level but are not getting the support and guidance from the clubs.
Thanks for the video! I really appreciate the insight on this topic as well as your background with playing tennis. It really puts things into perspective when I watch grand slams and see that there aren't many Americans to represent the male side.
Great talk, thank you coach!
I was thinking the same thing, I'm so sad I got into tennis so late and was never able to see if I really have the talent or not.
Plus in the part of Texas I live, it's so hard to find a free court around here.
Great insight Nick !!!
Excellent talk about the tennis I know zilch about. Very interesting.
I love this channel, it has everything.
Great insights đđ
good to know all these. tnx Nick
This was a great video. Your stories reminded me of the Barnstorming stories of early professional tennis when Jack Kramer would "steal" the best amateurs after they won Wimbledon. I had no idea about the depth of exposure that younger players had against adult players, I think that's great. There are some bigger cities that sort of have a league system like you were talking about. I know when I was living in the DC area the Northern Virginia Tennis League (NVTL) had five divisions A thru E that was independent of the USTA. There were full seasons with playoffs and everything. It was a lot of fun!
Hello Nikola, great video about American tennis. I am Canadian and we are going through the same issues. My partner and I are both director of the 2 successful tennis Academy in Toronto. We have started an open co-ed league that have the purpose of helping juniors to develop competitively which include pros, former players and former college players which provide the juniors to compete vs the top players as you point out in your video. The top players are paid (not enough yet) but we are working on it. Keep up the great work and thank you!
Great idea đđ
Same itÂŽs happening on Spanish Tennis vs Padel Tennis now, despite of the fact in Spain has great facilities for advanced players and juniors becomes professionals. However, players who ofter starting racket sports at the age of 6-9 years old, now turning into Padel vs Tennis; and this is sad to watch where Spain used to be a dominant country in tennis. WeÂŽll not see anymore an 4-5 top 100 Spanish players as we did now. Good analysis and accurate information.
Thanks for making this vedio. Hope USTA watch it and take into consideration
They know, theyâve heard this before. I can say one thing is a factor, the USTA looks at numbers that shows how many people are participating in tennis there sponsors are partners are sometimes trying to profit on the numbers of people playing tennis especially youth. The idea is to have kids play tennis for a life time , it for the the most part is not to produce champions. If you look at the club level for Jrâs most clubs would loose money or go out of business if their primary goal was to produce champions.The goal is to make it fun for everyone and if you happen to get a talent that wants to be the best in the world then that kid will get that attention. But most donât want to.
As someone who worked full time at USTA Player Development directly with over 50 US players and their coaches on technique and tactical development, I think your answer about the German system is a small part of the solution to the problem. The USTA is very aware of how the systems in other countries work vs what we do in the United States. The tournament structure doesn't explain why the men have struggled but we continue to develop so many female players inside the top 100 in the world. As someone who worked in the performance analysis department directly with the pro coaches and players......I think I have a pretty good idea why we keep coming up short on the men's side. It runs a lot deeper than the tournament structure.
-Jason Frausto
Great discussion. Loved to see those free courts. In San Francisco Bay Area its always hard to find empty courts.
Great Topic!
Very educational, thank you, Nikola. Also another thing is psychological too. If a younger player keeps playing too long at junior level, he keeps thinking senior level is a big deal. Once he gets there after a long wait, he would never be the same. We donât want that to happen. We seen this in other sports too. Talented juniors needs to be promoted to compete at a higher level at the earliest.
Definitely like your ideas on a national ranking system and more prize money tournaments. A better focus on the 14-18 "transitional" age group will also help, especially for college coaches like me who really want to recruit high-level American tennis players.
Still, I think it's a complex problem and some other factors are at play...
1. We need more clay courts in the US. I have no doubt that playing on clay and being forced to learn point construction on clay will help junior players mature faster...
2. Competition from other sports/activities: We live in a world now where other sports, e-sports, and as well as countless other activities are in direct competition of tennis. Now more than ever, it's asking a lot for a person to dedicate their life (mostly) to tennis.
Going along with your second point, outside of sponsorships, there's no guaranteed money in Tennis. If you don't win you don't earn. Average NFL practice squad players make $8,400 a week. That's $142,000 for 17 weeks of work. And they typically never see field time.
@@blaynewilson1549 True! A tennis player is essentially broke if you don't win (or injured)
I 100% agree with your analysis. Argentina and Brazil have a similar system than Germany and other European countries. The USTA has the financial muscle and knowledge to turn the current situation around but they are making a lot of money by keeping the status quo so why change? As a father of a former junior player, I have an idea the amount of money each household in USA spend on weekly USTA tournaments. To switch to a club system and a national ranking might jeopardize this "cash cow". So they aren't going to touch that. As a result, parents of american juniors are sending their kids to South America and Spain to train but not everyone here can afford that.
Pickleball is running rampant here in SoCal as well, sometimes they will steal the tennis courts and draw lines with chalk on top of them to play. SMFH
Itâs even worse cause itâs a fake sport.
I thought there was something called Pop Tennis or Paddle Tennis in SoCal and NYC... I always thought that would become more popular than Pickleball... but man, seniors love Pickleball....
Same here in Phoenix area
I play tennis and paddle ball. Luckily my tennis club has paddle ball courts.
I would be so annoyed with chalk on the tennis courts.
Paddle ball has helped me with my volleys.
@@josep9599 pickle ball**
In america high school (where I live) ' cool kids' play baseball football hockey not tennis, and tennis is a very expensive sport, with private coach and travel all out of parents pockets
Thatâs true but letâs be honest, if youâre playing tennis in high school youâre not going pro.
@@commondirtbagz7130 true. By that time players should already be competing on the ITF
@@josep9599 exactly
Pretty much every country has this problem . Not just the US.
@@commondirtbagz7130 Why not? Everyone starts somewhere. I would guess that almost all professionals played in high school
Yep, Iâve played against a 13 year old in my league match in Germany.
I was 30 a the time I think.
3 out 4 opponents in my last tournaments were 16/17 years old.
Sad to see these empty courts, because in Germany, we were not allowed to play tennis until last Monday.
Havenât played for 3 month now.
What a great video! I've recently started a new tennis group where we play each Tuesday here in Texas! No one does UTR or USTA tournaments like I do so I created a facebook group for my local county sending links of upcoming tournaments. Hoping it goes well!
Iâm envious of your courts. My town seems to always have full courts on the nice days and usually me and my friends have to wait a good 30min-hour unless we get lucky
100 percent correct. When I was younger in my teens, we didnât have the means to travel to tournaments and spend money like that, so I could only play a set number of tournaments a year, as a result I never got a lot of points, but I would beat high caliber players especially in UIL tourneys for school. The points system sucks. Another big problem are clay courts. There are none here and I believe European players learn at a young age to construct points better. Perfect analysis! Iâll be subscribing
Good video Coach Aracic đ interesting mention of Australia in there. They've really struggled for depth of talent in recent years also. I think the federations Aus, UK & USA who are Grand Slam countries get so focused on their big events they lose focus on coach development, club level participation and building a competitive landscape for juniors & adults outside of college, ITF, WTA, ATP.
If I lived in Florida Iâd be out there all the time. Tough to play in the northeast with a foot of snow on the ground for the last month.
Indoor court prices are too ridiculous for me. $55 to hit for an hour. No thanks.
Courts are always being used here in florida, competition is very tough too
Chicago completely frozen hell. Indoor costing me fortune
Yeah screw those indoor court prices. I just moved from Chicago to Phoenix and can play all year for free now lol
This past summer I had a hard time finding open courts during high demand times (weekdays after 4:00PM) (and weekends). Thereâs 5 parks with courts near me, and there were multiple occasions I drove around and there wasnât 1 empty court.
Hurts my heart too.
Excellent insight and ideas. Have you shared them with USTA management?
I got you. Im coming to represent the US. Look out for the name Keith Lewis from Tampa Fl.
EXTREMELY INFORMATIVE NIK! I HAD NO IDEA WHAT THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEN WAS, I JUST THOUGHT IT WAS BECAUSE MANY TALENTED ATHLETIC KIDS JUST GO INTO OTHER SPORTS THAT GET MORE PUBLICITY, LIKE BASKETBALL, FOOTBALL ETC. HOPE AMERICAN TENNIS GET'S BACK TO THE GLORY DAY'S! đđđŸ
Yes, but why are you SHOUTING?
American men's tennis will continue to struggle, as long as it continues to be extremely expensive to be good at. Agassi once said "If you could get the racket in the hands of kids in the inner cities, then they could make me look like a club player."
Tiafoe has been a good example of that, hes not from a wealthy family by any means and he started to train in courts for free on his neigjborhood and he now helps other kids to discover this elitist sport trying to expand it to kids that are not whealthy
American menâs tennis will continue to struggle as long as other countries play tennis.
Great points, thanks Niko. Iâve often wondered about this myself.
Iâve also wondered why 20-30 years ago things were different (Sampras, Agassi, Courier, Roddick, Blake, etc)
One other difference I think is that in the US, kids have so many sports to choose from that arenât played as much elsewhere. In the US, the âbig 3â are (American) football, basketball and baseball; sure there is basketball in Europe, but there is nothing elsewhere like the NBA. And baseball and football are what most boys are encouraged to play.
I think thats the mayor reason, usta like Australia got stale in their methods to produce new talents, everyone knows the average american player can't Even move well on clay the same as The average australian, (i would Say de minaur its the closet one to be an all rounder and maybe fritz and Korda) and that old fashioned view of how tennis should be played (cause it was succesfull in the past) gets them stuck in their development and we see tons of american players that can't hit a decent bh and just search for their fh, or players that can't stand working for a point, thats why they hate clay, they are not prepared mentally and don't have strategies to trill on that surfacez and at the same time they are not excelent on serve variations (just power) slices and volleys like mcenroe or samprass were, so they are not so dominant on hard surfsces either, not Even grass, i think outside Fritz and mainly Korda, theres a tendency of making a copycat of serve +fh on every upcoming player from those countries
Yes, I played some Murray players at the Paducah Sun tournament. I might have seen you there. At any rate, I didn't hear any mention of title 9. It's a funny thing, I grew up playing college tennis in the early 80's and it wasn't much long after that the title 9 came into place. It had the effect of cutting out many men's tennis programs because the scholarship totals had the be the same for women's sports. This event really sounded the deathknell of men's tennis in the U.S. We can thank Billie Jean King for that one.
Germany...my wife is german from hannover. We tried to play some tennis and we had to beg all the tennis places to let up play without a membership.
thats a big one, memberships and leagues are really expensive by me and theres snow everywhere outside
Great video, I thought based on the thumbnail you were going to roast pickle ball đ. Yes we definitely need a more cohesive national system. I know a lot of great players who arenât ranked the way they should be because of the points system or who donât even really participate in it. The path for tennis success isnât very clear here in the US. And also the sound of pickleball is so annoying, nothing better than hearing a tennis ball hit the sweet spot.
Pickleball must've been made by people who didn't like hard hit serves. So they make you serve underarm
I like one thing about you that you are so logical and factual.đđ
Club tennis in Europe is great but does Europe have public free tennis?
It does not which makes their dominance even more astonishing
@@IntuitiveTennis haha, no, people get discouraged and don't play on park courts because it requires a club coach to teach you the game. It's not astonishing lol
One thing is not mention here is tennis lesson are very expensive if you want to have private lessons. Ranges from $60-120/hour. Average good tennis coach is about $70/80 an hour. That will scare a lot of parents away from having kids playing.
Tennis is individual talent sport that person can be from any country and train in any country under any nationality coach.
Great video and insight. Same situation in Australia somewhat, probably made worse by being a continent so far away from US and Europe. We have 4 public courts here as well and they are usually empty until evening when people finish work then its packed.
Well thought Nikola,may your voice be heard .Congratulations from Paris for all your vidéos
Thank you Denis
I'm in Michigan and am only really allowed to play through the spring and summer months. Indoor courts are way too expensive when the snow hits. I think the cheapest route to play indoors was like $200 a month
Lucky, hard to find an empty tennis court in Canada
Canadian pro tennis is killing it these days
When I lived in DC you had to wait at least an hour to get a public court when USTA teams were in season. In Richmond its all [country] club based. So public courts have vacancy.
Hey man! This is the first video that I see from you and I would like to thank you for sharing your thoughts. We have a pretty much similar background in life expect that I spent my childhood in France not Germany haha Allez les Bleu! I completely share your opinion on this subject. American tennis is struggling and European tennis is doing really well. I cannot emphasize enough what you say about the transition from kids to adults tennis.... Those backhand slices at first are a struggle for a quite a long time lol!
i l moved to Belgium in 2000 and tennis there was on "fire"( Henin, clijsters, Malisse & Rochus brothers) as it had been here just prior. Then fed and Rafa etc, came on the scene and America just died out when Sampras and Agassi quit. Now no one seems to really be playing in the States. in my hometown places where you used to have to wait for hours to get on court from Spring until Fall are perpetually empty for several years now.
Tennis is really hard, and it's really expensive. America may be a 'rich' country, but most families cannot afford the costs of tennis. Team sports are far cheaper, and many of those sports are simply easier to play at a higher level. Same reason why so many poorer countries field some great soccer players. You can play the game anywhere and all you need is a ball. I live in socal and yes we have courts all over, but they're either private, paid, or locked up for school use only. It's really hard to find open courts unless you want to pay for them.
You must live in a strange part of SoCal. I'm in North County and I've got 4 parks in my city, all within 7 miles of each other that are public use. 16 courts total. And in each neighboring city, i know of at least 3 locations where public courts are at
Disagree... the difference is US the kids are pushed to other sports . Tennis doesnât have that aura around it.
US has basketball football soccer hockey baseball...
not only those sports but so many different levels in those sports minor leagues, g leagues.
Tennis just isnât popular anymore
1. âMost families cannot afford the costs of tennisâ lol
Waaay more Americans can afford playing tennis than Europeans.
2. âSame reason why so many poorer countries field some great soccer playersâ
Another stupid argument. It has 0 to do where youâre from. The best baseball players in history have been from some poorer countries as well although it requires lots of equipment. Same with basketball - some of the greatest players ever come from Africa or South America. In American football majority comes from the hood. Thatâs not different in tennis, look at Argentina - a 3rd world country but top 3 in tennis this century.
3. Poor countries are more likely to produce top tier athletes. One of the reasons why Brazil and Argentina are 2 of the top 3 (alongside Germany) greatest nations in sports.
@@jsofianos too bad tennis is much more popular in the US than in Europe.
In SoCal where land is expensive there are no empty public courts to be had after 5pm or on weekends.
Interesting video,thanks. You mention some of the players that inspired you growing up, just wondering, were you coached the âmodernâ strokes from day one or did you transition at some point? Donât think this is ageist because Iâm older than you đ
Great explanation. In the 1980s Bolleteri Academy for better or worse perhaps pretty much led the way for American pros to come for the next twenty years. Is there no equivalent now? College tennis is probably not a great way to become competitive. By the time you are in college it is likely too late to have the match play experience that you would get in the equivalent of the European system, or Bolleteri's academy which was only there to turn out pros.
You are right about tennis and the empty courts. I have started playing a bit now after a twenty year layoff as much as my old body will allow... but I have no trouble getting a court now... you used to have to wait when I started playing from 1978 to the 90s. I guess pickleball is the reality that a lot of older tennis players can play pickleball as it doesn't put as much strain on your body. Enjoy your channel very much... excellent instruction and discussion.
Great analysis, very interesting. I have noted during the last year a lot more people on the courts, probably because it's a good social distancing sport. I don't care as much about the pros personally, but I hope we maintain enough interest to keep a public court going in each town.
you are great â€ïž
Caloosa Park! I live 5 miles away. I never knew you lived here!
My favorite growing up was Jim Courier. After he retired, it was Roger Federer.
After Fed, it would be you
@@tekkenfan01 haha, I can't even break past usta 4.0 but I appreciate the thought.
@@humanentity2214 đ
Great video as allways, I also think it has to do with tennis now beeing dominated by good movers, training and playing in Europe where majority of courts are clay courts makes players learn how to move better then playing mostly on hard courts in US. American players still have big serves and good offensive weapons but in todays game if you are not able to move well and stay in the point longer you will lose most of the points.
Todd Martin, a US ATP already explained 20 years ago that American players never learned to play the defensive game.
exactly right. Clay court tennis encourages good movement, and sliding âŠ. Sliding is slowing , and slowing means that then the player must use good technique to load and release the ball.
ironically, it's actually being able to slow down well that to me , defines the good mover.
keep playing tennis on clay!
I think also American tennis has a bias towards serve-and-volley and the waning of that style has hurt Americans more than clay players. PS: your coach was Mel Purcell ? I remember seeing him play at Roland Garros in the mid eighties. Ask him about his match vs. Alexander LOL. PPS: I don't think pickleball is stealing YOUNG players from tennis :)
I mean not really? Gilbert, Agassi, Roddick, Chang, Courier, Isner, Connors (still went to net plenty, still wouldn't call him anywhere near a bonafide net rusher). I've only ever played one true serve/ volleyer on the rec. side, got stomped by a much older player in his 40s or so with a solid serve. No idea how much tennis is on the decline on rec. side of up & coming generations, but around 08-12 when I played the most tennis, still seemed pretty strong going here in FL, probably largely from Federer & Nadal dominating & doing crazy good revolutionary things on tour... and faced no serve/ volleyers in highschool, far too risky and have to have such a strong consistent serve, and chances are with modern technology and skills, most people with a serve/ fitness that great also have enough skill to play much better from the baseline (I was only 3.5, had some strong temptations more than most to go full s&v, inspired by Mac/Cash/Sampras/Edberg, but far too much risk vs. reward, hard to be consistent enough, modern rackets and strings make passing shots and lobs farrr easier and the pressure is always on the net rusher instead of the baseliners, effectively flipping the norm that dominated the sport with tiny rackets, crap strings and quick surfaces (excluding getting in position to finish at the net, only then is volleying preferable)... but tennis by far even in hay day of Fedal was still fairly niche/ ofc nowhere near as popular as other "bigger hype" sports
Far as what can help American tennis? For sure interest in the sport is too low on men's side, not as much opportunities for hitting on real clay courts/ strong competitors as in Europe (as been mentioned in other comments). The current system pumps out aggressors/ serve bots, just doesn't cut it any more for how competitive the tour has become & for how slow the surfaces/ balls play nowadays
Edit: and I have seen American Vasil Kirkov play when he was in high school (crushed our school's solid number 1 in districts in 2012) and blows my mind Kirkov is only ranked just outside the top 600 on the ATP at the moment. Very solid aggressive all round game and fitness, tho iirc he came over from Russia or some eastern European country (people who say there's ever been a weak era post 1990 or 2000 don't know what they're talking about clearly)
I have tennis courts at my apartment complex. 5 years here I've never seen one person use them. There very well kept as well. They look brand new
I hope we had that many courts here!.đ
Interesting discussion Nick. I think the reasons as to why some countries turn out a high proportion of tennis players in relation to their population is often a complex topic with many factors. The US does not have superstar male tennis players as it did in the era of McEnroe, Agassi and Sampras but nonetheless has a decent showing in the top 100 of the men games, and has Serena at the top of the womens game. It's quite intriguing how neighbouring Canada with a population of 30 million - a tenth of the US - has 4 players in the top 20 ATP rankings, given that Canada is not a country you associate tennis with. Here in England as one other commenter mentioned, we have also declined a bit in tennis prominence now that Andy Murray is struggling to regain form after his injury, though Dan Evans is trying hard to follow in his footsteps. Modern tennis was conceived in England but we have not dominated. maybe partly it as it is not the publics favoured sport, which would be football (soccer) here and in the states would be American Football or baseball.
In my society in India, people play badminton on the tennis court. It is so annoying to me
IN the us folks play soccer, hockey, and let the dog shit on the court
Serbian tennis
-djokovic
-krajinovic
-lajovic
-kecmanovic
All in top 100
Djere too
Tipsarevic and Troicki too!âŠWomen had Jankovic and Ivanovic as well (both former world number ones, one of them even grand slam champion!) Tipsarevic was even in the top-10 once! And if iâm not completely mistaken even qualified for ATP finals once or twice!
krajinovic and kecmanovic both trained in Florida. part of their success came from USA training and now represent Serbia.
I wish we have those courts here in Philippines
Sad to see nobody using these beautiful court. We never have any courts as nice as these.
Agree! North American tennis needs to change ! In tennis we use this phrase : Keep a winning formula; change a losing one !
According to the ATP Rankings for 2021.03.08, Canadians Denis Shapovalov, Milos Raonic and Felix Auger-Aliassime are all ranked top 20 in the world. Vasek Pospisil is 67th. On the women's side, Bianca Andreescu is currently ranked 9th and Leylah Fernandez 87th. So I don't think 'North American' tennis needs to change, to be fair. Surprised that this wasn't mentioned in the video, but understood re American tennis.
was this in boynton beach, Florida? I feel like I've hit on those exact courts the one time I ever played tennis in Florida.
Very interesting ! Iâm from France, I have been playing for 50 years soon, I donât know if there is a specific way to have grand slam winners. Every country would like to get the answer. Maybe in Europe, there is a competition soon between different countries, different cultures. Itâs maybe like in golf Ryder Cup, the US are the best in golf in the World but have difficulties abroad. Maybe the young US tennis players should play abroad to face international competition, and on all surfaces clay, hard, grass...
I visited several times the US, and I was wondering why there were so few tennis racquets on sale in the store ! Many things for football, basketball, hockey, but few for tennis. Is tennis popular there for the young boys ? Now, I feel sad here when I see empty tennis courts too. We donât have the pickle ball yet in France. I have tried, I understand itâs fun immediatly because itâs easy. But itâs like a beach game for me. It can not reach the feel of the real tennis. Congrats with the lessons with Anna, it shows a beginner can improve quickly and have fun ! You do well for Tennis publicity with your videos, thank you, youâre a great coach !
And I would like to get there to play with you !
I went to a tiny podonk university in middle America. There was only one US player on the Tennis team. A year later, only foreign students were on the team.
Thanks, Coach. It is a sad state of affairs in the U.S. for men's tennis. Some colleges are cutting tennis programs altogether. Like you said, pickleball is taking off and some tennis courts are being converted to pickleball courts. I think that in the U.S. the men's side is what drives national interest, and since we don't have any Grand Slam champions at this point, people are not paying attention. And to compound this problem the sports new coverage for tennis is horrible -- they will go on and on about all the other sports, but completely ignore any tennis news. Like in California when Indian Wells is going on, you won't hear anything about it -- a Masters 1000 in California and it doesn't get coverage. Really sad.
Tennis being cut in colleges is sad đđ. My school Murray State University has cut the menâs program coached by legendary Mel Purcell
He has a lot of great suggestions. I often thought skipping the the college route made much more sense. If you add his suggestion about had more prize money tournaments
As long as there isnât a top American ( with charisma) star then a lot of kids wonât care.
True
We now have Osaka. SHe will be the hope for future women stars. As for the menâs still pretty hopeless.
@@gozer825 Osaka is a great player but she's not an American citizen. He was referring to a top American, not Japanese player. Serena Williams is a top American tennis player, for example.
@@jackwilliams5223 Osaka registers herself as Japanese on tour, but to me sheâs pretty much American. She lives in LA.
@@gozer825 If someone is a US citizen and can vote in America, then they are American. I don't consider non-US citizens as Americans. My father came here in 1960's and became a US citizen because he wanted to become an American. Living somewhere doesnt make someone an American if they cannot vote here.
I would certainly be using those courts if I was there. We are in lockdown in Ireland and tennis is not currently allowed
When I first saw pickle ball I thought that it was a little derpy but that it could be a conduit for getting people into tennis. But so far its been the opposite. I see people who I know play tennis but they're playing pickle ball instead.
Very true
I feel like pickle ball is just tennis on easy mode and is very very casual which is fun and probably much cheaper than tennis.
@@hsy2448 Didnt Know it was even a real sport. Thought it was just an expression, like people would Say "whatre you playing pickleball haha?", like meaning "tiddlywinks" or some generic term for "nothing".
I think the main factors is that in Europe you find ITF tournaments all over the place. just a 100-200km drive you can play ITF level every weekend or even ATP. Like Dustin Brown mentioned he purchased a VW bus to start his career and lower his expenses cause ITF price money is not that much either. Also one point you forgot, Dominik Thiem mentioned as well and is manifested in his current play. The clay courts in Europe are better training courts than hard courts. They require you to have a bigger variety of shots and learn more about aggresive and defensive play. And the last point is that in Eastern Europe, tennis is a sport with which you can still escape poverty.
With respect to your last point, what draws Eastern European men to tennis rather than football? A lot of people believe the dominance of American football, basketball etc keeps talented athletes out of tennis in America.
@@jgwil2 they are drawn to both. Some have more talent for tennis, most play soccer.
Very good perspective. You should be one of the people who runs the USTA.
I live in northern VA and u can't find a tennis court available, they are all packed for the most part