Quote:
Originally Posted by rkmsuf
All the tennis players became golfers.
That and you have all the younger 'stars' either retiring or pursuing other things(Williams sisters).
The Andy Roddicks and James Blakes of the world spend a big chunk of time overseas playing and just aren't at the forefront of the youth sporting world. Tennis is only an interesting TV product once a year....the US Open. And even that timing is terrible considering summer is wrapping up and all the fall sports are starting.
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Actually Tennis has 4 major TV periods for the 4 slams. Australia in the spring is probably the hardest due to time differences, but Roland Garos (French Open) and Wimbledon are also big TV market events.
I definitely see a lack of real personalities in American players. I never liked the Williams sisters to begin with, I always felt their attitudes were simply not beneficial to Tennis in general, but thats just my own preference. They did indeed draw many young people into the sport that otherwise wouldn't have bothered.
The days of Connors, McEnroe, Agassi, etc are definitely over. Our biggest name now os Roddick and he's due to bow out soon and he's always been a pretty lame candidate anyway. He never really lived up to the hype. He's a great player and a very nice person (met him at a USTA event in hartford in 2002) but everyone expected him to be the next lendl or Currier and I think the pressure to be that always hurt him.
These days I'm actually enjoying the Russian invasion and nothing beats a Federer/Nadal match for just unbelievable tennis.
Its still a great sport. I think the thing that really keeps it from being an "everyman" game is the cost. Court fees, racket costs, lessons that run from 50-500 an hour depending on the pro teaching them...its really insane.