Australian Open 2012 Results: Serena Williams' Loss a Bad Omen for USA Tennis

After watching American men crash and burn in the early rounds of the Australian Open, I wrote that it was clear that American tennis needs a hero in the men's ranks.

But I knew that there was still hope for the good old U.S. of A.

American men may have disappointed down under, but the possibility existed that we would see a champion in the women's bracket.

I got down in my knees and said, "Help us, Serena Williams. You're our only hope."

So much for that. Serena bowed out of the Open in the fourth round, losing in straight sets to 23-year-old Russian Ekaterina Makarova.

Though Serena came into the match without having dropped a set in any of the first three rounds, it was clear right away that she was in trouble. Makarova easily took the first set 6-2, and the second set got away from Serena seemingly as soon as it began. 

And then things got ugly. Serena's frustration boiled to the surface, and her shaky play got even shakier. Serve after serve went into the net or beyond the magic white lines, and Serena simply couldn't make the shots she normally makes.

Take one look at the match stats and you'll see that Serena definitely deserved to lose in straight sets. She was only able to convert 52 percent of her first serves and she had a staggering seven double faults. She just couldn't control her serve, resulting in five break points for Makarova.

But even those numbers don't look too bad when you compare them to Serena's number of unforced errors. She committed 37 of them, a figure that boggles the mind.

After the match, Serena explained why she lost.

“I didn’t play well; I’m not physically 100 percent,” she said, according to The New York Times. “So it’s just like I can’t be so angry at myself, even though I’m very unhappy. I know that I can play a hundred times better than I did this whole tournament.”

Because we've had the pleasure of watching her over the last dozen years or so, we know that Serena can play better too. We saw her at her worst in the fourth round at Melbourne, but that doesn't mean we'll never see her at her best again.

But you can't help but entertain the notion that we will indeed never see Serena's best ever again. She's going to be 31 by the end of the year and she has a lot miles on her body. Her health and fitness are going to be question marks at every tournament from here on out, and it's possible that she will never be 100 percent again.

If you can accept the notion that Serena is entering or already has entered the twilight of her career, you'll notice that things are pretty gloomy concerning American tennis. The men's ranks don't contain any great American players and things are even more bleak in the women's ranks. Aside from Serena, there aren't any American women to focus in on.

So going forward, we're faced with the very real reality that it's going to be a while before any American player is going to win a Grand Slam. 

This had to happen sooner or later. The men's ranks have been a lost cause for America for several years now, leaving Serena and Venus Williams to do right by American tennis. Venus hasn't been relevant in over two years, and now Serena appears ready to join her.

So America doesn't just need a hero in the men's ranks. It needs one in the women's ranks too. If America doesn't see one arise, it won't be long before the country loses interest.

America may already be losing interest. There are no young American prodigies in either the men's or the women's ranks, a sign that nobody out there is overly interested in training and developing the next great tennis player.

Either that or it's mere coincidence.

Either way, American tennis is starting to look a lot like American golf. It's just not up to par with the rest of the world.