Worst Wimbledon showing for U.S. men since 1912
LONDON – What a stark statistic for the nation of Bill Tilden and Don Budge, John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi: It’s been 101 years since no men from the United States reached Wimbledon’s third round.
And the last time it happened, way back in 1912, no Americans even entered the oldest Grand Slam tournament.
By the end of Thursday, all 11 U.S. men in the 2013 field at the All England Club were gone, with top-seeded Novak Djokovic accounting for the last one by beating 156th-ranked qualifier Bobby Reynolds 7-6 (2), 6-3, 6-1. Earlier in the day, former top-five player James Blake lost to Bernard Tomic of Australia 6-3, 6-4, 7-5, while qualifier Denis Kudla was beaten by Ivan Dodig of Croatia 6-1, 7-6 (4), 7-5.
That trio joined 18th-seeded John Isner, 21st-seeded Sam Querrey, Ryan Harrison, Steve Johnson, Alex Kuznetsov, Wayne Odesnik, Rajeev Ram and Michael Russell on the way home.
“It’s a tough stat to hear, but I still believe, right now, where U.S. tennis is, not too many guys are in their prime. That’s why the numbers are like that. But a lot of guys are, maybe, in the tail end of their careers and a lot of guys are coming up,” said Kudla, a 20-year-old from Arlington, Va., who is ranked 105th. “Maybe next year, or the year after that, things could change. You have to go through a little bit of a struggle to get some success.”
Led by top-seeded and defending champion Serena Williams, the U.S. women still are represented in singles at Wimbledon this year.
Williams extended her winning streak to 33 matches, the longest on tour since 2000, by eliminating 100th-ranked qualifier Caroline Garcia of France 6-3, 6-2; 18-year-old Madison Keys knocked off 30th-seeded Mona Barthel of Germany 6-4, 6-2.
Keys next plays 2012 runner-up Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, and Williams goes from a 19-year-old opponent in Garcia to a 42-year-old opponent in Kimiko Date-Krumm, the oldest woman to reach the third round at Wimbledon since the Open era began in 1968.
Already into the third round with a victory a day earlier was No. 17 Sloane Stephens, while yet another American, wild-card entry Alison Riske, had her match against Urszula Radwanska – Agnieszka’s younger sister – postponed by rain Thursday.
American men are going through their longest drought without a Grand Slam champion anywhere; this year’s U.S. Open will mark exactly a decade since Andy Roddick won the title there. That, at least, can be partly explained by this: Switzerland’s Federer, Spain’s Rafael Nadal and Serbia’s Djokovic collected 31 of the last 33 major trophies.