American men's tennis needs a star player to draw more U.S. fans to the sport

Sundays tend to be all about routine. Church, professional football (hopefully), afternoon siestas, family dinners and repeat the next week. Recently, though, as part of this column space, I’ve developed a new habit.

Last week at this very time, I was writing about American men’s soccer and its mediocrity at the international level.

Much of that phenomenon has to do with the lack of a dominant superstar in U.S. soccer.

Time to make exactly the same argument for American men’s tennis.

The Farmers Classic is being held on the UCLA campus this week, and there are some nice Americans in the draw, namely the top-seeded Mardy Fish. But men’s tennis these days is dominated by Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, none of whom are remotely American.

Without a national superstar ““ think Connors, McEnroe, Sampras, Agassi ““ it’s hard for the United States to fall in love with tennis. An American with the grace of Federer, the determination of Nadal, and personality of Djokovic would be irresistible to our hearts.

No discussion of American men’s tennis over the last decade or so would be complete without mention of Andy Roddick, the often-enigmatic face of the sport in our country since Sampras and Agassi bowed out. As talented as he is, Roddick’s legacy, in my mind, will be as the Landon Donovan of tennis.

Donovan ““ arguably the best male soccer player produced in the States, by default ““ is highly skilled, well-respected on the international stage and possesses a combination of good looks and charisma that endears him to many fans. Roddick is much the same.

And while Donovan has his goal against Algeria in last summer’s World Cup as the watershed moment of his career, Roddick has a 2003 U.S. Open title, and one of the best second-place finishes of all time, a defeat at the hands of Federer in an epic duel at Wimbledon in 2009.

Both athletes, though, leave us wanting something more. Not necessarily from themselves ““ although both have shown flashes of top-level talent ““ but from the American programs that haven’t been able to produce superstars in soccer and tennis like they have in other sports.

It’s quite the quandary, and not one with any easy solution, other than convincing LeBron James, Michael Phelps and Derek Jeter to switch sports.

So leave it to Hollywood to come up with the answer. It came as Thursday night merged into Friday morning, and it Thor-hammered me over the head.

The American military was in a similar dilemma in World War II, in desperate need of a hero to not only be the vanguard of the war but also to rally domestic support for the cause.

All it took was a scrawny man with an enormous heart, a few scientific cocktails, and Captain America was born.

Why shouldn’t the development of an American tennis superstar be any different?

Hell, I’ll even volunteer my services. I love a good game of tennis, even though I’m awful at it.

But if little Steve Rogers can become an American superhero overnight and win a war for his country, finding the next national tennis star shouldn’t be too difficult. Borrowing blood samples from Agassi and Sampras would be a good place to start.

Short of that, the search for the savior should be a fascinating one.

Like soccer in this country, tennis is in desperate need of an elite American. I for one am intrigued to see where the hunt takes us.

For now, though, we’ll have to close this column without a definitive solution.

Tune in next week when I write about cricket. I think you know where this is going.

If you’d like to volunteer for the Captain America project, email Eshoff at [email protected].