USTA tries to strengthen U.S. tennis

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- U.S. tennis was a formidable force at the Sony Ericsson Open, by today's standards at least.

Serena Williams won the women's title for the fifth time. Andy Roddick ended a streak of 11 consecutive losses to Roger Federer. James Blake matched his best Key Biscayne showing by reaching the quarter-finals. Lindsay Davenport scored her biggest victory since becoming a mother when she beat No. 2-ranked Ana Ivanovic.

None of those results alleviated concerns about the future of American tennis, because Williams is 26, Roddick is 25, Blake is 28 and Davenport is 31. The grooming of talent in the United States has stalled, while waves of precocious youngsters keep surfacing in Europe, Asia and South America.

"We're seeing the emergence of players from all over the globe, countries that include Serbia, Croatia, Cyprus, China, India," said Arlen Kantarian, the U.S. Tennis Association's CEO for professional tennis. "We're feeling the impact. It's a new world. We recognize the reality, and we're committed to change."

The best news last week for American tennis might have come off the court. The USTA hired Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe to supervise player development as part of a greater commitment to grooming future champions.

In the past, the USTA defined its role as to help academies and parents develop players. Now the association wants to take the lead.

"I've been arguing this for 10 years -- if you're going to do it, why not do it all the way?" McEnroe said. "The USTA takes a lot of heat over the years for Where are the players?' So you might as well step up and be accountable."

The USTA is creating an advisory board and coaches commission to help scout and develop talent. McEnroe will co-ordinate the developmental program, serve as a super scout and reach out to academies and tennis parents. He'll also oversee a training centre for elite juniors in Boca Raton, Fla.

In short, the USTA and McEnroe are taking responsibility for getting Americans into the second week of Grand Slam tournaments.

"We had to get in the game," USTA president Jane Brown Grimes said. "The other Grand Slam countries are taking big steps in this direction."

Critics of the USTA may greet with skepticism the latest moves, which include a 50 per cent increase in spending on player development next year. The association wins praise for its marketing and promotional campaigns, but past pledges to improve the grooming of players have gone unfulfilled, resulting in a long, slow decline in U.S. results.

In 2007, for only the second time in 20 years, no American made the singles finals at the U.S. Open. American men went 0-9 at the French Open, their worst showing there in at least 40 years.

On the women's side, only one American younger than 26 -- Ashley Harkleroad -- is ranked in the top 100. Roddick is the youngest of the three Americans in the men's top 50.

By contrast, other countries with ambitious developmental programs have enjoyed a tennis boom.

"We see the young talent coming out of places like France and Spain," Blake said. "America has so much talent and resources that we should be competing in those juniors. I think it's time to take a step to fix that."

The hope is that McEnroe can succeed where others have failed. He has been popular with players in his eight years as Davis Cup captain, and he works well in tennis' alphabet soup of organizations -- among them the ATP, WTA, and ITF.

"What I'm bringing to the table is an ability to communicate," said McEnroe, a former top-30 player and the youngest brother of seven-time Grand Slam champion John McEnroe. "My goal with this role with the USTA is to bring everybody together to try to do this as a team."

The broad push by the USTA to improve the talent pool extends to grade-school youngsters, who often struggle at first with tennis.

"We find kids are picking and sticking with their favourite sport by the time they're 10 or 12 years old," Kantarian said. "Their introduction to tennis isn't as friendly as their introduction to soccer and other sports."

To address the problem, the USTA has been pushing a format for children 10 and under called QuickStart, with balls, rackets and court dimensions tailored to their age.

To groom elite juniors, the USTA has opened a centre at the Evert Academy in Boca Raton. The centre will provide free training for 20 boys ages 14 to 18, and 20 girls ages 12 to 18.

It's part of an effort to put a greater focus on top juniors and young pros. The payback will come a decade from now, Kantarian said.

"We're talking about the next generation of American champions," he said. "We've got a challenge in front of us. This is going to be a long haul."