Sampras and Agassi: Were They the Last of the American Male Tennis Legends?

With 22 Grand Slam titles between them, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi were two of the greatest tennis players to have lived, and their intense rivalry was comparable to that of Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe.

Sampras in particular held the record for the most Grand Slam titles won with 14 titles before Roger Federer surpassed that record (the Swiss now boasts 16 Grand Slam wins following his victory in the 2010 Australian Open). Sampras however still holds the record for most wins in one tournament in the Open era, having won Wimbledon on seven separate occasions.

Agassi in fact won eight Slams, and he is one of only seven players to win all four titles, known as the Career Grand Slam. Agassi also held the record of 17 wins in Masters 1000 tournaments, but that has now been passed by current world No. 1, Rafael Nadal. Agassi was a runner up in a further seven Grand Slams.

Both Sampras and Agassi had astonishing records, astonishing careers and certainly held up the great American tennis traditions that were set down the years by players of the calibre of Bill Tilden, Don Budge, Jack Kramer, Pancho Gonzalez, Tony Trabert, Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe and Michael Chang – all famous Grand Slam winners!

Sadly, since the Sampras and Agassi have hung up their racquets, American men’s tennis seems to have nosedived with Andy Roddick the only American man to win a Grand Slam since Agassi's last win in 2003 Australian Open. That win was also in 2003 when Roddick won the US Open at Flushing Meadows.

Therefore, no American male tennis player has won a Grand Slam for almost eight years and only Roddick has managed to make a final in the 41 Slams since then.

The question on the lips of many fans is whether Agassi and Sampras were the last legends of the tennis court from the USA? Equally, is there a crop of emerging talent capable reviving the fortunes of a nation with a long and storied history of tennis greats?

In fairness to Roddick, he has been a great entertainer. His service game alone is often worth the entrance money to one of his matches, but he has played in an era of tennis initially dominated by Federer and more recently by Nadal. It could not have been any more difficult for him, but there has been no man who has tried harder and there were very few who watched the heart-breaking final set in the 2009 Wimbledon final against Federer. After Roddick though, who else is there?

Mardy Fish, No. 16 in the world rankings, is the next highest ranked American player, but at the age of 29, he is almost certainly going backward rather than forward and has never done any better than reaching the quarter finals in Slams, the last time being the 2008 US Open, where he lost to Nadal.

Sam Querrey, a big hitting right hander is ranked at No. 17, but at 23 years of age he falls in the same age bracket of players such as Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Juan Martin del Potro, players that so far in his career he has struggled against. His best performance so far in a Grand Slam is the last 16, which he achieved at the 2008 US Open, losing to Nadal. He also reached the same stage at Wimbledon in 2010, losing to Murray and again in the 2010 US Open, where he was beaten by Stanislaw Wawrinka.

At No. 24 in the world is John Isner, a player whose huge frame and equally huge serve certainly has promise but so far in his career, has failed to deliver. At the moment he will most likely be remembered for the marathon, world-record breaking match he played at Wimbledon in 2010 winning against Frenchman Nicolas Mahut after over 11 hours of play. Isner, who is now 25 years old, won the final set by 70-68, but the effort he needed to win ruled him out of the rest of the tournament. To date, his best Grand Slam performances have been the fourth rounds in both the 2009 US Open and 2010 Australian Open.

There are no other Americans in the top 100 in the world right now, and while Jack Kramer and others will be turning in their graves, the wait goes for America's next tennis legend.