Filed under: Davis Cup, ATP, Sports Business and MediaIf you can't beat 'em, buy 'em. Is that what we're down to in American tennis? Is that the American Way?
The U.S. Open starts Monday, just two weeks after a historic low in U.S. tennis, when no American men were ranked in the world's top 10. It's the great fall of U.S. tennis. And word now isn't just that no one is on top, but that no one is coming, either. The U.S. doesn't know how to develop players at all.
The best place to learn the art and nuance of the modern game is on clay, but Americans can't play on the stuff. It's not easy to find red clay courts in America, where hard courts suit the U.S. style of power and dominance.
But working through the minors now is an 18-year-old American left-hander, a clay court specialist who has been called "the chosen one.''
That's right, Andrea Collarini (pictured) reached the final of the junior French Open in May on the slow, red clay. He'll play juniors at the U.S. Open next week.
So how do you explain him?
"I have to use the expression,'' a spokesperson for the Argentine tennis federation, AAT, told me, "they are stealing a player.''
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