U.S. Men Are ‘Closer Than We’ve Been In a While’ To Winning A Grand Slam

With Wimbledon set to begin Monday, John McEnroe believes the American men are closing in on winning a major title.

No American man has won a Grand Slam trophy since Andy Roddick at the 2003 U.S. Open. Pete Sampras was the last American man to win Wimbledon – in 2000.

But the U.S. enters the fortnight with four men ranked in the Top 13 in the world: No. 5 Taylor Fritz, No. 10 Ben Shelton, No. 12 Frances Tiafoe and No. 13 Tommy Paul. They are among 14 American men in the Top 100 in the world.

Fritz is coming off winning his fourth Eastbourne title, one of the warm-ups to Wimbledon played on grass. Fritz defeated fellow American Jenson Brooksby 7-5, 6-1 to extend his record for the most men’s singles titles won in Eastbourne.

“I definitely think that we’re closer than we’ve been in quite a while,” McEnroe said this week on an ESPN conference call with reporters. ESPN will broadcast Wimbledon beginning Monday.

“We’re closer than we’ve been in 15 years.”

In recent years, several American men have gone deep into majors.

Last year, Fritz beat Tiafoe in the U.S. Open semifinals to become the first American man in a Slam final since Roddick at Wimbledon in 2009, and the first at the Open since Roddick in 2006.

In the final, Fritz lost to Italian Jannik Sinner in straights sets in a jam-packed Arthur Ashe Stadium where the crowd included Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes, Jon Bon Jovi, Matthew McConaughey and Noah Lyles.

Fritz, who opens Monday against huge-serving Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, has never been past the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.

Shelton reached the Australian Open semifinals this year and the U.S. Open semis in 2023. He lost in Melbourne to Sinner, who improved to 15-0 against Americans in majors.

Shelton had his best finish at Wimbledon last year when he reached the fourth round.

Tiafoe has twice reached the U.S. Open semis, but also has never been past the round of 16 at Wimbledon (2022).

Paul advanced to the Australian Open semis in 2023 and the quarters at Wimbledon a year ago, where he lost in straight sets to Carlos Alcaraz.

The biggest problem for the American men – actually, the two biggest problems – are Alcaraz and Sinner. They have combined to win the last six major titles.

They have apparently picked up where the “Big 3” left off. Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer combined to win 66 major titles, depriving many other players, including all the Americans during that era, of winning majors.

“I think that some of it was we just assumed that [American men winning majors] would keep happening in the early 2000s, and then when we realized that it wasn’t, that all of a sudden legends came in… Federer, and Nadal [and] Djokovic,” McEnroe said. “Then the more countries putting more resources into it. We were sort of falling behind.”

He added: “In terms of who we have, Tommy Paul, Taylor Fritz, Francis Tiafoe, Reilly Opelka. They’re all sort of the same age. I think it’s good when you have people pushing each other….

“Now, Shelton has come along. He’s an interesting story. He’s more like the type that I have been pushing. Don’t focus all in it at 10 years old. Maybe play some other sports for a while. Go to college potentially. Mature as an individual. I think that’s starting to make an impact in terms of our consistency.”

On the women’s side, two Americans have won both majors this year, with Madison Keys capturing her first Slam crown at the Australian Open and Coco Gauff winning an epic battle over world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the French Open final.

“On the women’s side you have the two Grand Slam winners already this year are American, Madison and Coco,” 18-time major champion Chrissie Evert said. “You got Jessica Pegula who reached the finals in the U.S. Open. So American tennis, both men and women joined together, has never looked so good.”