US Open has no Top 10 Men Tennis Players

Historically, the United States has always had one man in the top 10 for tennis ranking, but that has changed. Last week Andy Roddick was No. 9, but he fell to No. 12. The US Tennis Open will not have any US men ranked in the top 10 for the first time since 1973. Some feel this might affect the attendance for the Open, which is certainly not something to be taken lightly.

Experts say it isn’t surprising about losing the top 10 Ranking, all we need to do is look at the global nature of the game and the way the game has changed. Tennis players are now participating from all over the world. The US crowds prefer name-recognition, because most tennis fans are of the casual fan or even the non-tennis fan, and if there isn’t an American household name being mentioned, not only attendance may go down, but viewership as well.

There are still many excellent tennis players that will rack up US Open tennis scores that will start making them an American household name. However, that will only happen during the tournament and not before. Roddick will naturally return to the top 10 shortly, and so will Isner and Querrey, but will it be in enough time?

The United States Tennis Association has put their money into developing more tennis players that will have the ability to stay in the top 10 ranking throughout all the tournaments; for the continued success of the U.S. Open, as well as helping with continued success of TV deals, growing of the game and bringing in more Americans to watch the US Tennis Open.