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As I watched the last few rounds of the (other) U.S. Open two weeks ago, I started thinking about why there has been such dominance by Americans within the top 10 of golf but not within the top 10 of tennis.
To further the point, I extended the window of players I’m looking at and dove in on both tennis and golf and where they’re currently at. This is what the current top 15 looks like in men’s tennis. That is two Americans in the top 14 and three in the top 15.
This is not unusual. Actually it is unusual in that there are normally fewer than three Americans in the top 15. Here’s a look at two years pulled at random (2017 and 2021).
This is crazy! As many Argentines (2) as Americans (also 2)?! Argentina’s population is about 1/7 as that of the United States.
On the flip side, here’s the current top 15 in golf.
It is dominated by Americans. More than half of the top 15 is made up of players from the United States.
There are … probably 1 million reasons this is the case so I posed the question on Twitter last week and got some really interesting answers.
Here’s the one that captivated me the most.
There are many different answers to this, some of which people have pointed out already. Tennis was decidedly an American sport during the time of McEnroe, Conners, Sampras, Agassi, etc.
However, in my view, the way American juniors are taught today doesn't translate well to tennis on an international stage. For example, tennis players in Europe mostly grow up on clay courts which forces them to learn how to build points whereas here in the U.S., players are taught how to have big serves and big forehands (see John Isner, Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton).
While this can propel them to the top of the game, against the best of the best (Federer, Nadal, Sinner, Djokovic, Alcaraz) they stand little chance because those players can deal with the big serves and force them to play out points.
@TheMaster_Plan_
I responded, and he wrote back.
I've played tennis my entire life and when you watch American juniors vs. those from other countries, the differences are pretty clear.
American tennis prioritizes the wrong things, and based on collegiate tennis and USTA/UTR rankings, players want to win matches to put themselves in a better position.
When playing only against American competition, it's fine, but once you move internationally, it's a different conversation.
This isn't true of everyone. Plenty of players I know have versatile games, but when certain things are promoted and taught widely in this country, there's a smaller percentage of those players than there are elsewhere.
One point that I neglected to mention was the prevalence of indoor tennis in the United States, especially in the northern U.S.
I'm from New England so the outdoor season is essentially April-September. Indoor courts reward bigger playing styles (big serve and groundstrokes) because the courts are quicker. This translates directly into players developing certain game styles because they can win tournaments and draw offers from these matches.
Because the outdoor season is relatively short and it's mostly on hard court as well, players aren't doing the same type of training as players in Spain, Italy, or southern Europe are.
@TheMaster_Plan_
This is intriguing to me, and I think there is a parallel in golf, and that parallel is The Open Championship. Golf rankings are mostly based on how you do in the top league, and the top league predominantly plays on American style golf courses.
Of course Americans dominate!
But what if the PGA Tour went to a schedule where just a quarter of the courses were American and the rest were Australian, Scottish, Spanish and Irish? What would the top 10 look like then? I suspect a lot different.
Here are the last three Open Championship leaderboards.
That’s 19 Americans in the top 59 spots, or 32 percent, which is quite far from the 53 percent that currently make up the top 15 players in the world.
This proves … absolutely nothing, of course, but it is interesting when thinking about the possibility (though not the likelihood) of the American-centric PGA Tour potentially moving to a more global slate. A global schedule probably (?) won’t happen for a lot of commercial reasons (mostly on the broadcast side), but if it does, it could change the shape of the top 10 or 15 in the world.
And if it leads to more Dan Brown content, I am all the way in.
I emailed Da Vinci Code author, Dan Brown, last night to see if he was watching the Dan Brown contending in the Open.
Here's what he wrote back: "This was the result of my last shot — I’m pleased to see my alter ego is playing better than I am."
— Kyle Porter (@KylePorterNS)
1:00 PM • Jul 21, 2024
