The future of American tennis seems promising, but fans of the sport in America still believe that their tennis stars can do significantly better. The two main players in this story are certainly Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton, tennis players who are in the top 10.
Fans in America are still not completely satisfied with their game, hoping that one of them can win the Grand Slam, considering that since 2003, when Andy Roddick last brought the trophy to America at one of the Grand Slams, no one has succeeded.
However, most experts and former tennis stars believe that American tennis fans have the wrong opinion and that it is unnecessary to criticize players like Fritz and others. During the podcast The Inside-In, Mark Kovacs shared his views, believing it is unnecessary to comment on American top-ten tennis players.
According to him, Grand Slams are not the only measure of a tennis player's success, especially when you consider how difficult it is to win such a tournament and lift the Grand Slam trophy.
“If you’re top ten in the world, top 20 in the world, there are only ten people in the entire world better than you. You’re at the top, you’re at the pinnacle, there isn’t much more to go,” he said.
“But in our sport, if you’re ten in the world, you’re not that good in the scheme of the casual fan.
“Unfortunately, we downgrade how good they are unless they’re winning Slams.
“If you’re not winning Slams, you’re not good enough, and it’s wrong. It’s not the way we should evaluate.”- he said, as quoted by Tennis Gazette.
Kovacs did not forget to mention John Isner, a tennis player who dominated for years but still suffered criticism. He praised his consistency and pointed out that every junior would like to have a career and path like John Isner.
Different criteria
Anyway, tennis fans have different criteria when it comes to tennis players and their successful careers. We cannot say that John Isner had a bad career, but it is certainly difficult to compare the American tennis player with names like Novak Djokovic and similar.
Of course, Kovacs and others are aware of this.
Reaching the top of tennis on your own is extremely difficult, especially when we know how much the competition is getting stronger and stronger every year.
