KEY POINTS:
Once there was McEnroe and Conners. Then there was Sampras and Agassi. Now there is Roddick and, er, Blake. And Mardy Fish.
To say that American men's tennis isn't quite what it once was is a bit like saying there's a touch of unrest in the Middle East
at the moment.
Sure, Roddick and Blake are in the top 10 (just) and Roddick does have a Grand Slam title (the 2003 US Open) to his credit. But there is no mistaking the glory days of American tennis are over. They have been for five years.
Between 1992 and 2003, American men claimed 25 of the 48 Grand Slam titles up for grabs. Roddick (one), Jim Courier (three), Andre Agassi (eight) and Pete Sampras (13) all graced the winners' circle. Since then, 20 Slams have passed without an American man picking up a title.
Beyond the erratic talents of Roddick, who has enjoyed as much success on the celebrity dating circuit as he has on the tennis court in recent years, the cupboard is bare.
The country's second- and third-ranked players, Blake and Fish, have never got past the quarter-finals of a Slam. Above-average pros both, it's unlikely they'll ever seriously challenge the likes of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
No surprise, then, that any hopes of an American revival rest on the shoulders of 21-year-old Sam Querrey, the big-serving right-hander who today takes on 2007 champion David Ferrer in a Heineken Open semifinal.
Querrey's career is still travelling on a quietly impressive trajectory. In 2006, his first year on tour, he ended the season ranked 127. The next year he had moved up to 63, and last year he improved again to 39.
More important, Querrey might just have the game to trouble the sport's elite players. His serve has been clocked at 229km/h. While not quite in Roddick's stratosphere (the fastest serve ever at 246km/h in the 2004 Davis Cup) it does put Querrey right up there with the big boomers.
He might be the great white hope of American tennis, but Querrey hardly gives such matters a second thought.
"You hear about it but I don't really think about it," he says.
"It is nice to be put in that category, I guess. But I just go out there and play for myself and whatever happens, happens. As long as you give 100 per cent attitude, that is all that counts. Hopefully one day I could potentially win a Slam."
Unless he does, or at least goes close, he will continue to fly fairly low on the radar of the average American sports fan. America is a nation that tends to celebrate its successes and just plain ignore its failures.
"People for the most part watch just the Slams. Those are the matches that are on TV. If I were to win this tournament, no one in America is really going to know. An average sports fan doesn't know it. They really only know about the Australian Open, US Open, French Open and Wimbledon. Those are the events - we need an American to win one of those."
Tall at 1.98m and pretty well built at 94kg, Querrey is blessed with a physique that suited a lot of sports. As a teenager he enjoyed watching Sampras in his pomp but wasn't naturally draw towards tennis.
"I didn't watch a whole lot of tennis. I played all sports and I was just better at tennis than the other ones so I went with it.
"I was really good at baseball, pretty good at football and basketball and pretty much played everything. I enjoyed them all and I still enjoy playing baseball, football or volleyball. I guess now I enjoy tennis the most but back then I enjoyed everything equally," Querrey said.
His father, Mike, was a gifted high school baseballer who turned down an opportunity to join the Detroit Tigers' farm system in favour of a university education.
It was a decision Sam would also have to face, with his father's regrets tipping his decision towards passing up a full scholarship to premier college USC to instead try his hand as a tennis professional.
"A month before school started dad was drafted by the Tigers but he decided not to go. He kind of regretted it. He was in the same boat I was with college and pros, even though it was a different sport.
"I was always planning on going to college."
As a touring pro, Querrey often gets a chance to try his hand at interesting things. He spent yesterday afternoon trying to prise himself into an A1GP car. At a tournament in Miami last year he took batting practice before a Major League baseball game, hitting two home runs.
"I just wanted to make contact with the first pitch. Once that happened I kind of loosened up and hit two out, so that was kind of cool," he said.
On the tennis circuit, he picked up his first ATP title in Las Vegas, made the third round of the Australian Open and the fourth round at the US Open.
Those performances were good enough to ensure his steady climb up the rankings continued, but he knows he needs to raise his game several notches to compete with the likes of Federer and Nadal.
"I've still got a lot of things to work on, but I think one day [my game] can be at that level.
"My goal at the end of this year is to be in the top 20."
