Wimbledon has not disappointed this year in terms of upsets. Top seed Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova all not making it through to the second week. Federer’s exit bringing to an end a remarkable run of 36 Grand Slams in which he consecutively made the quarter finals.
Then there was the feat of Japanese player Kumiko Date-Krumm who turned back the clock to be at the age of 42 to the oldest player to make it into the final 32, although Serena Williams was too strong for her in the that stage of the competition. She beat Briton Virgina Wade’s achievement making the third round aged 39 years 362 days in 1985.
However just as Australia struggled twelve months ago with players getting through the early rounds, so too has America in 2013. In fact the American men recorded their worst Wimbledon for over a century being left without a player in the third round for the first time since 1912.
It has now been almost 10 years and 39 Grand Slam tournaments since the United State was able to applaud a men’s trophy winner. Pete Sampras being the last to win Wimbledon in 2000 and Andy Roddick the last to win a major when he took out the US Open in 2003. He also suffered heartbreak losing at Wimbledon in the finals of 2004, 2005, and 2009 to Roger Federer.
Despite many declaring that there has been a change in the guard in Tennis with Australia and the United States struggling to produce players capable of challenging the final rounds of the major tournaments the US believe that there is a new crop of players coming through, names to keep an eye out for are Jack Sock and Steve Johnson as well as those knocked out in the early rounds at Wimbledon, in Ryan Harrison and Denis Kudla.
There is no doubt that Tennis is going through a change and the traditional powerhouses are not producing the volume of players they did in past but rest assured they will always produce top class players but there will be fewer of them, in the mean time Australia pins its hopes to Bernard Tomic.
