America's Lowest Point at U.S. Open?
N E W Y O R K, Sept. 12, 2004 -- "Is this the darkest day in the history of American tennis?"
The speaker, an American newspaper reporter, was standing in line with an Australian sports broadcaster late this past week.
An hour earlier, the last American player had been eliminated in the women's semifinals here at the U.S. National Tennis Center.
In the space of less than 24 hours, four American hopefuls — two men and two women — had been excused from further competition. The finals of America's tennis championships were in the hands of two Russian women and four men from Britain, Sweden, Australia and Switzerland.
The last time this happened, 16 years ago, Stefi Graf of Germany faced Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina and Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia played Mats Wilander of Sweden.
Darkest Day?
So was this the darkest day since 1988?
"Could be," answered the Aussie. "Look at what could have been."
What could have been — two all-American finals — turned into two non-American finals. Instead of Jennifer Capriati facing Lindsay Davenport in the U.S. Open women's final and Andre Agassi facing Andy Roddick in the U.S. Open men's final, the Americans were all sitting on the sidelines.
But wait, it's happened before.
Among women, foreigners have barged their way into non-American finals nine times in 124 years, and men have done it 21 times in the same span.
As recently as 1997 and 1998, the men's final involved no Americans. Patrick Rafter of Australia won the title both years, defeating Greg Rusedski of Great Britain and Mark Philippoussis of Australia. Four times in the 1990s, foreign women swept aside Americans to reach the finals. The last time, in 1994, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain defeated Steffi Graf of Germany.
What's evident from a survey of USTA records is the dominant role Americans have played in winning their own championships.
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