Americans rebounding in Australia
After clinching a tiebreaker to claim the first five-set victory of his career, Sebastian Korda celebrated his fourhour, 47-minute triumph at the Australian Open with a scissors kick - rare theatrics for an uncommonly even-keeled 21-year-old with designs on tennis greatness.
Korda, who’s now into the tournament’s third round in his main-draw debut in Melbourne, was a preschooler when the last American man won a Grand Slam singles title. So to him, Andy Roddick’s 2003 U.S. Open championship is the stuff of history, as is the 1998 Australian Open won by his own father, Petr.
Nonetheless, Korda, who goes by “Seb,” may well help revitalize American men’s flagging fortunes in a sport they once dominated.
For now, at least, Korda is among a handful of reasons to be hopeful after last summer’s rock-bottom benchmark, when the United States failed to place a man among the world’s top 30 for the first time in tennis-rankings history.
Korda, 43rd ranked, is among six American men with a chance of reaching the Australian Open’s second week. Reilly Opelka, 24, has joined him in advancing to the third round. Maxime Cressy, 24, will take on Tomas Machac on Wednesday (7 p.m. Eastern). Taylor Fritz, 24, and Frances Tiafoe, 23, also face off Wednesday night (9 p.m. Eastern) for a spot in the third round. And early Thursday (1 a.m. Eastern), veteran Steve Johnson, 32, will seek his first career win over Jannik Sinner, the 11th seed.
In the view of Martin Blackman, the U.S. Tennis Association’s general manager of player development, reaching the second week is a reasonable expectation for some among this cohort at the Australian Open, which has only one past men’s champion, Rafael Nadal, in the field.
As the 2022 season unfolds, Blackman hopes a few American men will reach the semifinals or finals of a Grand Slam.
“That is really what we’re looking for,” Blackman said in a telephone interview. “Obviously we don’t control that timing, and it’s incredibly competitive. But there are good signs.”
As the USTA executive most responsible for Americans’ success on the pro tours, Blackman didn’t sound alarm bells when all men tumbled from the top 30 last summer, confident in the talent and promise he saw in the pipeline.
“Obviously that’s a benchmark that we don’t like,” said Blackman, a George Washington graduate and former tennis coach at American University who competed briefly on the pro tour. “But that was really a blip; it was a false positive. We actually have the best trends on the men’s side that we’ve had in 15 years.”
Currently, there are three American men among the top 30 - Fritz, 22nd; veteran John Isner, 25th; and Opelka, 29th.
As for encouraging trends, Blackman points to Tommy Paul, 24, winning his first ATP tournament title, in Stockholm, in November.
Korda and Opelka each have defeated two top-20 players in the last six months. In August, Opelka ousted thirdranked Stefanos Tsitsipas, and 17thranked Roberto Bautista Agut from the Masters event in Toronto. Korda’s first-round Australian Open upset of 12th-ranked Cameron Norrie followed a November upset of 16th-ranked Aslan Karatsev.
And Fritz reached the semifinals of the Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells in October.
Blackman is also buoyed by the fact that since they were teens, the 23- and 24-year-old have pushed one another.
Better still, he added, younger challengers such as Korda and fellow 21-year-old Jenson Brooksby, whose recent covid diagnosis kept him from competing in Australia, are putting what Blackman calls “positive pressure” on Fritz, Opelka, Tiafoe and Paul.
“You don’t want younger Americans passing you in the rankings,” Blackman said. “You want to be the top American; you want to get picked for Davis Cup. That was so important for us to have those three men do so well last year.”
Said Korda, after his first-round upset of Norrie: “There’s always an American pushing, going further in tournaments, so it’s inspiring for all of us. It’s like a little competition between us . . . . I think it’s a great thing for ourselves and American tennis in general.”