Is U.S. Tennis all the way back ?

American tennis has seemingly had a surge in the last nine months to a year, with some notable results and player breakthroughs on both the mens and women’s tours. Taylor Fritz started everything for the men last year by breaking through and winning the biggest title of his career at his home tournament in Indian Wells; dispatching Rafael Nadal in the final while dealing with a debilitating ankle injury that almost forced him to withdraw before the match. Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula have been steadily climbing and progressing through the rankings, where they both now sit inside the WTA top 10. Come next Monday following the Australian Open, a whopping ten American men will reside inside the top 50 ATP rankings. We have seen flashes from some American women who were vying to supplant the Williams’ sisters in Sofia Kenin and Sloane Stephens who lifted major trophies, but those two players have not proved to be able to remain at the top of the game and have struggled with inconsistency. Neither Gauff nor Pegula have won a slam yet, but have been on a steady rise to the top echelons of the sport. Gauff made her splash in 2019, when she defeated Venus Williams in the fourth round of Wimbledon at just fifteen years of age. She has since made the finals of the French Open and cracked the top 10, all while still only eighteen years old. Pegula has had a little more of a delayed rise to the top, but she now sits as the top ranked American women’s tennis player. She has reached five major quarterfinals since the start of 2021, and now sits at number three in the rankings. On the men’s side, Fritz has been the latest young gun to make serious headway. In 2022, he won the aforementioned Indian Wells title, lost a heartbreaking match in five sets to Rafael Nadal in the Wimbledon quarterfinals and qualified for the end of year ATP Tour Finals as a top eight player in the world. While he has made significant progress, he was not to be outdone by friend and compatriot, Frances Tiafoe, who had previously reached a major quarterfinal in 2018 but made his real breakthrough at a slam at the U.S. Open. Tiafoe had a career defining win against Nadal in the fourth round of the U.S. Open and made it all the way to the semifinals, where he lost in five enthralling sets to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz. To say Tiafoe left it all out on the court in his two weeks in New York would be a massive understatement. He energized and thrilled the crowd with his run to the semis, and will surely look to build on that confidence boosting result in months to come. Now, we sit at the start of 2023, and have just had eight American men reach the third round and three reach the quarterfinals of the year’s first major in Australia. Tommy Paul is now sitting as the lone American left in the semifinals, the first of his career, and will be tasked with the immense challenge of taking out Novak Djokovic. For Paul, this is the best result he has had in his career thus far, and will look to become the first American man to reach a Grand Slam final since Andy Roddick lost 16-14 in the fifth set to Roger Federer in the 2009 Wimbledon final. So, these positive results and breakthrough performances beg the question; Is U.S. tennis all the way back? Well, it’s certainly close, and if things continue we should have a U.S. male grand slam champion for the first time since 2003 in the not so distant future. On the women’s side, things have been less dire as the Williams’ sisters, Kenin and Stephens have all lifted winner’s trophies in recent years. Despite this, the U.S. women need one or more players to take the mantle and steer it in the right direction with the Williams’ sisters, specifically Serena, on the way out. Pegula and Gauff seem like the likely tandem to carry the torch, but there are others who have made pushes as well. Danielle Collins and Madison Keys have knocked on the door of winning a major, and are two players that can hang with anyone on a given day. It’s great that U.S. tennis has so much promise on both the men and women’s sides right now. With all the success and tradition Americans have had in professional tennis, it’s only fitting to start asking the question; Is U.S. tennis back?