America could use someone like McEnroe

SAN JOSE, Calif. – When John McEnroe picks up his racket Monday night at HP Pavilion, the clock will turn back. His appearance in an exhibition doubles match at the SAP Open will provide a trip down memory lane with one of the all-time tennis greats.

And the stark reality is that looking backward is the only way to find an American among the kings and queens of the court.

“Clearly,” McEnroe said, “there is frustration.”

The decline of U.S. tennis may not be a new story, but it did reach a new low at the recent Australian Open. Not a single American, male or female, advanced beyond the Round of 16 in the year’s first major event.

No American man has won a Grand Slam since Andy Roddick captured the 2003 U.S. Open – the longest drought since the Open Era began in 1968.

There are few signs that it will start raining titles soon. The world rankings contain just six U.S. women and eight men in the respective Top 100s. Only Mardy Fish, ranked eighth among the men, is a Top 10 player.

A younger, fiery McEnroe might have ranted angrily: You cannot be serious!

These days the graying McEnroe, who turns 53 on Thursday, is an elder statesman of tennis. He’s a roving ambassador who helps promote his sport by playing exhibition matches.

One of the game’s most authoritative commentators, McEnroe still speaks his mind. But he does it in a more measured fashion, and at lower decibels. He called the Australian results “extremely disappointing,” but not unexpected.

“We’ve sort of been spoiled over the years, and we want to see guys winning and challenging for the majors,” McEnroe said. “At the moment, that’s not there. My goal and hope is to bring the buzz back to American tennis and see American players winning majors. I don’t think there is any reason why we can’t do that.”

But it will be, he acknowledged, a long climb back.

McEnroe combined sheer artistry and a maniacal competitiveness to win seven Grand Slam singles titles. He and Jimmy Connors were U.S. standard-bearers who paved the way for the next generation of American stars such as Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier and Michael Chang, who were dominant in the 1990s.

But the sport’s power base gradually has shifted to Southern and Eastern Europe. The global appeal of tennis even has created what some are calling a new Golden Age.

The final rounds in the men’s bracket of Grand Slams have seen epic battles between Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, Spain’s Rafael Nadal, Switzer- land’s Roger Federer and Great Britain’s Andy Murray. The Australian Open title match lasted nearly six hours before Djokovic finally put away Nadal in five sets.

But no American man has reached a Grand Slam final since Roddick, now 29 and dealing with a balky hamstring, did it at Wimbledon in 2009.

The troubles on the women’s side have been less pronounced because of the brilliance of Serena and Venus Williams. But even the 30-year-old Serena, who has won 13 singles titles, has slipped to 12th in the world.

McEnroe recently rounded up the usual suspects on why U.S. tennis has fallen so hard. But after talking about how the best athletes are gravitating to other sports and the cost associated with elite tennis, McEnroe touched on a reason that is painful for him.

Tennis, he said, just isn’t as popular in America anymore.