By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Tuesday, March 21, 2023
MIAMI—American males are knocking on the most important door.
Today, a pair of highly effective Americans practically knocked out the web in Miami.
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Australian Open quarterfinalist Ben Shelton and serve-and-volleyer Maxime Cressy hit collectively in a Miami Open observe session showcasing booming serves.
After one Cressy first serve crashed into the highest of the tape sounding virtually as loud as a shotgun blast, Shelton turned and mentioned “you hear that?”
It’s been 20 years since Andy Roddick defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero to win the 2003 US Open.
Roddick stays the final American man to boost a Grand Slam singles title, however American males together with Shelton and Cressy are making noise.
While American males’s tennis has appeared crimson, white and bruised at occasions throughout that 20-year Grand Slam singles drought, indicators of U.S. males’s resurgence are throughout.
Taylor Fritz received his maiden Masters at Indian Wells final March and went on to succeed in the Wimbledon quarterfinals. Frances Tiafoe toppled Rafael Nadal in New York en path to his maiden main semifinal on the US Open the place he misplaced to eventual-champion Carlos Alcaraz and Tommy Paul is coming off his first Grand Slam semifinal on the Australian Open final January.
Survey the ATP rankings and you will find 13 Americans within the Top 100— most of any nation.
Given current success, Taylor Fritz suggests we may see an American man breakthrough to grasp a significant probably this 12 months.
“We’ve been asked that stuff—it’s definitely pretty old, but we’ll probably be getting asked more because I think now people are seeing between a couple of us there’s real Slam contenders,” Fritz advised the media in Miami right this moment. “And realistically any of the upcoming Slams could potentially be the one.
“It’s not too loopy to imagine that one in all us would possibly simply take one in all these [2023 Grand Slam titles].”
Hall of Famer and ESPN analyst John McEnroe said he believes an American man can win a Grand Slam in the next 18 months. McEnroe calls Sebastian Korda “doubtlessly probably the most proficient of all of the younger Americans with the largest upside.”
At the Australian Open in January, Paul topped 24th-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 to join Korda and Shelton in the quarterfinals in Melbourne.
That victory gave the U.S. men three quarterfinalists at a Grand Slam for the first time since the 2005 US Open when Andre Agassi, Miami Open tournament director James Blake and Robby Ginepri did it and three quarterfinalists at the Australian Open for the first time since 2000 when Agassi, Sampras former Davis Cup hero Chris Woodruff achieved the feat.
Fritz said his buddy, Paul, is more polished and professional now and a true contender.
“I’ve at all times thought Tommy was a very good participant,” Fritz told the media in Miami tody. “I at all times thought when he was 30 on the earth or 40 on the earth I at all times thought he was manner higher than that.
“I always know the way he’s playing it’s not crazy to me but he’s showing everyone else I think he’s eliminated a lot of small lapses giving away a break stuff like that. He’s tightened the game up a a lot it’s always been there.
“Between all of us like Frances, Tommy, Reilly we’re all actually cloe buddies we prefer to have enjoyable and mess with one another. At the top of the day, all of us are I assume aggressive with one another. But I really feel like we do not actually speak about it, we simply let that half come out on the court docket once we play towards one another however off the court docket we’re all good buddies.”
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Source: www.tennisnow.com