What happened to US professional tennis?

[tmc...@gmail.com]

https://www.datalounge.com/thread/19274393-what-happened-to-us-professional-tennis-

The Williams sisters are the enormous exception, but if it weren't for them, the US wouldn't even be a blip on the radar.

There was a time when both US men and women were dominant forces on the courts. What the hell happened?

[joh]

Op maandag 17 juli 2017 01:57:59 UTC+2 schreef tmc...@gmail.com:

> https://www.datalounge.com/thread/19274393-what-happened-to-us-professional-tennis-
>
> The Williams sisters are the enormous exception, but if it weren't for them, the US wouldn't even be a blip on the radar.
>
> There was a time when both US men and women were dominant forces on the courts. What the hell happened?

The world caught up. If you want to see annihilation watch swedish tennis.

[John Liang]

Yes, there was a documentary on Swedish tennis in the early 80s - early 2002 called Borg's inheritors. During the documentary they interviewed Peter Lungren who was 25th in the world in mid 80s but 7th in Sweden. Now the best Swede is around 200 in the ranking.

[The Iceberg]

Spain and France have tennis academies which are both very good systems, way better than the US college system, which I've heard pushes the athletes too hard, East Europe have their academies for ball bashing women and some men - hence their domination of the sport, BUT they clearly neglect the psychology side as they all tend to choke at big competition.

[bob]

great question. NBA, NFL, MMA, MLB, who knows? nobody plays tennis,
nobody seems to watch it. times are a changin.

bob

[bob]

could be wrong, but i don't think anybody comes out of the american
college tennis system to play pro tennis anymore. if you're not pro
level by age 18, forget it IMO.

we do have the academies: the evert, IMG stuff. that produces some
pros.

bob