Commentary: Blame coaches for U.S. tennis demise / LJWorld.com

Archive for Wednesday, July 9, 2008

By Gil LeBreton - Fort Worth Star-Telegram

July 9, 2008

Tennis' most storied fortnight, the Wimbledon Championships, ended Sunday, and there wasn't an American dude in sight.

Hasn't been one for a while on the U.S. scene.

If you're NBC-TV or somebody who cares about the future of tennis in America, there's probably no doubt that you've been keeping track. Tennis' future has never looked so cloudy.

If, on the other hand, you happen to coach college tennis in this country, you've probably already turned the page. That sound we hear is the tennis coaches at, among many others, Baylor, Texas and TCU running to wash their hands of the problem.

For the first time since 1926 - 82 years - only one U.S. player advanced as far as the third round of the men's singles. That sole survivor was No. 102-ranked Bobby Reynolds, who grew up in Georgia and played collegiately at Vanderbilt.

Those latter facts are pertinent, because Vandy is one of the diehard college programs who are leaning into this gale-force windmill.

The Texas Aggies should also be saluted sharply, because A&M coach Steve Denton fielded an all-American - as in birth certificate - roster this past season. Denton's group even included - cue the "Friday Night Lights" theme - four tennis players from Texas.

The patriotism more or less stopped at that makeshift border, however. In the final singles rankings of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, nine of the top 12 U.S. collegians were from other countries. In all, 29 of the top 50 ranked players were foreigners.

The landscape wasn't any different at the lower levels, either. In the Division II rankings, the top 11 and 16 of the top 17 were foreigners.

I have no problem ordering "French" fries.

But if anyone deserves to have their motives scrutinized here, it should be the college coaches and the athletic directors who've condoned them.

The NCAA allows each institution to award 4.5 tennis scholarships. Baylor's roster this season included seven foreigners. Of TCU's seven players, three were from Romania and one from South Africa. Texas' 12-man roster listed six foreign-born players.

And the list goes on.

Why do college coaches award their scholarships to foreign athletes? Because they can. Because, they say repeatedly, they're under pressure to win championships and they can't do it by recruiting only American tennis players.

They've chanted that warped mantra often enough that they actually believe it.

The pool is so thin now, the college coaches argue, programs such as Stanford, UCLA and Southern Cal would get all the top U.S. players, and the Baylors and Ole Misses (eight foreign players) would never have a chance at an NCAA title.

Apply that logic to other sports, and you'll easily see its folly. The best basketball players in the country don't all want to go to Kansas and Duke, nor do the best football players want to play for Notre Dame.

No, it isn't the job of a college coach to groom the next American Wimbledon champion.

But if the coach works for a U.S. college, he owes it to the future of American tennis to at least give its young players a fair opportunity.