American tennis legend John McEnroe believes an American male tennis player will win a Grand Slam in the next year or year and a half. Throughout history, American tennis has had very talented and successful players. But in today’s men’s tennis, one of the most stunning stats is that there hasn’t been an American male Grand Slam champion since Andy Roddick won the 2003 US Open.
“There is a void in tennis with Roger retiring we are not sure about Rafa so there is a place now that the players are trying to find out where they belong so there is an opportunity. Tiafoe I would put close to the top in terms of upsides because athletically he could be even the best of them all, but mentally he is getting stronger, disappointing result at the Australian Open.
I think in the next year or year and half I think you will see one of the Americans win a major,” McEnroe told Tennis365.
McEnroe tips young Americans to make a big Grand Slam breakthrough
At Wimbledon, Taylor Fritz made the quarterfinal before losing to Rafael Nadal in tight five sets.
Two months later, Frances Tiafoe made his first Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open before losing to Carlos Alcaraz in five sets. At this year’s Australian Open, there were three American male quarterfinalists – Tommy Paul, Sebastian Korda and Ben Shelton.
Of those three, only Paul made the semifinal after beating Shelton. In the Australian Open semifinal, Paul didn’t stand much of a chance as he suffered a straight-set defeat to eventual champion Novak Djokovic. In the last couple of Grand Slams, American male tennis players have had some notable results.
McEnroe thinks all of the mentioned players above are quality players but noted that he believes Korda is the one with the biggest upside.
