Australian Open 2012: Power Ranking Mardy Fish and the 7 Best American Men

American men used to dominate the Australian Open. From 1992 to 2003, an American won the Australian Open eight times. 

Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Jim Courier established dominance in this era.

Yet since 2003, an American hasn't won the tournament in Aussie Land.

Mardy Fish, John Isner and Andy Roddick have the best chance to do it this year, but they are nowhere near the level of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. 

There are also some young Americans—such as Donald Young and Ryan Harrison—who are probably a few years from making a run for a Grand Slam title. 

Here are the top seven American men in the 2012 Australian Open.

Please note that James Blake is not on this list because he's not playing in the Open. 

7. Ryan Harrison

Ryan Harrison is only 19 years old, but he'll be competing in his third career Australian Open. Unfortunately for him, he'll be playing against Andy Murray in the first round.

While the chances that Harrison defeats Murray are pretty slim, it's still impressive that he's playing at a high level at the young age of 19.

He's a budding American tennis star, and with two wins in Grand Slam matches under his belt, don't be surprised if we hear Harrison's name more often in the next few years.

Let's hope he learns from his experience against Andy Murray in this year's Australian Open and takes positive lessons from it for the future. 

6. Ryan Sweeting

The Bahamian-born American, Ryan Sweeting, is making his second appearance at the Australian Open. Last year, he won in the first round before succumbing to Rafael Nadal. 

He won his second Australian Open match this year, defeating German Matthias Bachinger in straight sets. Now he faces No. 5 David Ferrer.

It'll be difficult for the 24-year-old to pull off an upset. He's 3-10 lifetime in Grand Slam matches, and he's never been past the second round in any Grand Slam tournament.

Sweeting has had a lot of Grand Slam experience throughout his young career. He's played in six U.S. Opens; there is no doubt that he's had his learning moments, despite always exiting early.

And let's not forget, Sweeting performs better in the Australian Open than in any other Grand Slam event—he's got a 2-1 record in Melbourne; in other Grand Slam events, he does not have a winning record. 

So you never know; Sweeting may actually feel comfortable and have the momentum to pull off a second-round upset and finally go deep in a Grand Slam tournament. 

5. Sam Querrey

Sam Querrey missed Wimbledon and the U.S. Open due to injury. Now he's back after a less-than-stellar 2011 campaign.

Querrey has a history of advancing deep in Grand Slam tournaments.

In 2010, he lost in the fourth round in both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. He did not carry the momentum to 2011, though, losing in the first and second rounds of the Australian Open and the French Open, respectively. 

Querrey already has won his first-round match against Kenny De Schepper and has a reasonable shot to make it to the fourth round.

He plays against an unranked Australian, Bernard Tomic, in the second round and will most likely have to go through Ukrainian Alexander Dolgopolov, who struggled to defeat wild-card entrant Greg Jones in the first round.

4. Donald Young

The 22-year-old Chicagoan has plenty of momentum coming into the Australian Open after a strong U.S. Open, where he advanced all the way to the fourth round. He upset Stanislas Wawrinka before being done in by Andy Murray.

Young already won his first-round match against Peter Gojowczyk ,and now faces Lukas Lacko, whom he defeated in last year's U.S. Open. He will then most likely have to go up against Rafael Nadal, which will obviously be difficult.

But as we've learned in sports, it's never safe to go up against a hot underdog, which is what Young will be if he faces Nadal. 

3. John Isner

After a quarterfinal appearance in the 2011 U.S. Open, John Isner looks to do some more damage in the Australian Open. 

Making it into the quarterfinals was a major step for Isner—and for this reason he is the third-best American in the Aussie Open. 

Isner is now ranked 16th and goes up against David Nalbandian in the second round. He will most likely have to get past Rafael Nadal in order to reach the quarterfinals.

That will be a tough test, but defeating Nadal could propel him to the No. 2 spot in this list. 

2. Mardy Fish

No. 8 Mardy Fish has a pretty easy route to the quarterfinals. The only ranked player he might have to defeat is No. 11 Juan Martin del Potro. 

Fish is 13-9 lifetime in the Australian Open. He's still looking for a Grand Slam finals victory in order to be placed in the elite class of American superstars with Andy Roddick, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. 

In fact, Fish has never been past the quarterfinals in Grand Slam events, going 0-3 in the biggest matches of his career.

However, he's coming off a solid year that included a quarterfinal appearance at Wimbledon. Perhaps he can channel this momentum and use it in the Australian Open, where he is fortunate enough to have an easy path to the quarterfinals. 

1. Andy Roddick

The gap between No. 1 and No. 2 in this list is immense.

Andy Roddick has had so much success throughout his career that it will take at least one Grand Slam title by Mardy Fish or John Isner to knock him off.

Other than the fact that Roddick is the only active American male with a Grand Slam title, he has accumulated a record of 37-10 in the Australian Open and 121-40 overall in Grand Slams. 

An argument can be made that he has peaked, since he hasn't had a semifinal appearance since the 2009 Australian Open.

However, he had a quarterfinal appearance in last year's U.S. Open, and has had plenty of success in the Aussie Open despite the fact that he's never won it.

He's had four career semifinal appearances in the Open, and now he has momentum from his U.S. Open finish. Ranked at No. 15, Roddick has no reason to not at least be able to play against Novak Djokovic in the fourth round.