U.S. Not the Only Country with Issues in Men's Tennis

There are frequent articles about what's wrong with U.S. Men's Tennis.While that is a fair question, we must not lose sight of the fact that there are *several* countries that used to produce Grand Slam Champions but do not, today.

How about Sweden, Australia, UK, Germany? And...come to think of it, nearly every country but Spain and Switzerland have been without a Grand Slam title for the last seven years.

So it is a little unfair, in my opinion, to point to any one country at this point, as to why there aren't legends from that country.

Does it, just maybe, have to do with the era we're in?

Federer and Nadal are far and away the two best players of this era, and possibly any era. Even with Djokovic winning the Australian Open this year—which certainly was attributed to his top-notch play—Federer and Nadal are still much more than head and shoulders above the rest of the field. They are incredibly special players.

First of all, to succeed meaningfully in pro tennis, it really has to be your life, perhaps more than other sports.

Also, the recent champions, along with the advances in technology, have set the standard of tennis to be brutally high.

And these days, players can produce far more power, from more positions on the court, than any time in past eras.

This makes the game a real equalizer; today's technology makes it significantly more possible for a much lower ranked player to bang the heck out of the ball and beat someone ranked much higher.

Therefore, it takes someone extremely special to break out of that pack, and stand out. It's difficult for anyone outside of the Top Three right now to do, and we'll see how No. 3 (Djokovic) does in the coming years.

Sure, a player may have a great fortnight in a Grand Slam or two, and even beat Federer and Nadal in a Master's Series event. But can they play like them day in and day out? Again the standards are incredibly high.

The issues mentioned above, in my opinion, override any other reason that any particular country is not succeeding in tennis and have to do with just about all countries outside of Spain and Switzerland. Not just the United States.

As mentioned, it takes a truly special shooting star to break out of this pack. There have never been, and maybe never will be a player who plays like Nadal or Federer.

Therefore, when their era is done, it's possible that we could have a major variety of Grand Slam winners from a variety of countries. We will see.