Andy Roddick thinks some of the criticism about the American men's tennis has been grossly exaggerated and the 2003 US Open champion says it has gotten "boring" at this point.
Since this year's US Open didn't get a local winner, it completed the 22nd consecutive year without an American male tennis player winning a Grand Slam singles title. As mentioned in the opening sentence, the last to do it was Roddick, who beat Juan Carlos Ferrero in the 2003 title match at Flushing Meadows.
Since Roddick's retirement, an American man has only made a Grand Slam final - Taylor Fritz was beaten by Jannik Sinner in the 2024 US Open final. And while a certain progress has been made - Fritz, Ben Shelton, Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe have all made at least a Slam semifinal - the criticism surrounding the lack of titles on the biggest stage remains as big as possible.
Roddick: This isn't the same conversation... We have gotten better and it's so boring at this point
"Now we've gotten to this thing where it's like a pass-fail. If you don't beat Sinner and Alcaraz, then it's just the same. It's not the same as 10 years ago... If we can't celebrate progress, then we're just lazy. There's 23 men in the US Open this year. Highest number in who knows how long. Like a long time. We have four current American players that have made the semis of a Grand Slam," Roddick stated on his podcast.
After winning the 2003 US Open final, Roddick made four additional Grand Slam finals in the remainder of his career but never again won a second one. In the years after him, it took some time before American man started making deeper runs in Slams.
"This isn't the same conversation that it was 10 years ago. It's just not. I don't like it. It's not fair. And I understand we have to talk about it. It's so boring at this point to me," Roddick noted.
