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Did Tiger Woods Factor In USA Tennis Decline?
26 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles, Scoop
A thought just popped in my mind this week…the phenomenal ascent of Tiger Woods in the late 90’s may be a factor in why American tennis has struggled to produce super champions since the big four generation of Sampras, Agassi, Courier, Chang faded from the tennis landscape in the early 2000s.
Woods turned pro in ’96 and won his first major title at the Masters in ’97 and his second a year later at the PGA Championships.
Of course, we all know the popularity of professional golf and Tigermania exploded exponentially once Woods become a star.
My question is, could the emergence of Woods’ popularizing of golf into the American culture as a mainstream sport adversely affected tennis popularity and, more importantly the numbers of quality teenage athletes to decide to become tennis players? Keep in mind, that golf is a whole lot easier of a sport to play than tennis which requires so much sacrifice and time.
Could the dynamic example of Tiger Woods and all the recognition, wealth and glory he received from the media and endorsers have inspired a considerable number of young athletes to take up golf instead of tennis?
The numbers seem to indicate it’s a possible and logical conclusion. The last two American males to win Grand Slam majors were Andy Roddick and Pete Sampras, both at the US Open in the early 2000’s. Since then, each crop of American eighteen-year-olds have not been able to materialize and develop into superstar players of the Sampras-Agassi calibre.
Outside of Isner, Fish, Querrey, Ginepri, Young and a few others, American tennis has been a disappointment.
What do you think…is it possible Tiger Woods and his influence on golf is a major cause for the struggles of American tennis?
Let’s discuss…
(Tiger Woods oil painting by Scoop Malinowski)
Tiger won his first major in Augusta in '97
Greg · January 22, 2014 at 8:20 pm
“Keep in mind, that golf is a whole lot easier of a sport to play than tennis which requires so much sacrifice and time.”
Two questions:
1. Says who?
2. Have you ever played golf?
Scoop Malinowski · January 23, 2014 at 6:56 am
No running or physicality in golf and the ball you hit never moves Greg 🙂 Yes I tried golf – but must admit the results were disastrous. haha My point is perhaps Tigermania has taken a damaging bite out of tennis, in more ways than one.
Dan Markowitz · January 23, 2014 at 9:37 am
Well, I think you’re onto something here, Scoop. Certainly when a transformative athlete like Woods ascends to the top of the game, golf in this case, a lot of people, especially in his home country are going to follow. But I think it’s more of a case that the sport has become much more global now and there hasn’t been a tranformative player in the U.S. since Agassi and Sampras and Mac and Connors before them.
I don’t think tennis fans went out and watched Andy Roddick and immediately wanted to hit the court the way they did with the other four American players I named. So when you don’t have an American star, it’s hard to convince young athletes to excel. Also, Jack Nicholas and Arnold Palmer were prety inspiring American golfers, but tennis didn’t suffer after their reigns at the top.
Also, I think Americans as a culture, have gotten softer since the 1990’s. And then the USTA has done a crap job in motivating and instructing inner-city American juniors to excel.
Scoop Malinowski · January 23, 2014 at 9:59 am
Roddick was the best player in the world for a year, a fierce competitor and a funny witty guy to interview but his style of play did not captivate the common sports fan like Sampras, Agassi, Federer or Nadal. I really think the gargantuan popularity of Tiger Woods has had an adverse impact on tennis and the state of mens tennis now though it’s hard to prove. Golf is very popular with NFL NHL and MLB athletes. Look at a guy like Drew Brees – phenomenal athlete but he couldn’t get it done in tennis as a junior rival of Roddick. The question is — how many Drew Brees did golf (and other sports) take away from tennis?
Andrew Miller · January 23, 2014 at 12:21 pm
I think the Roddick-Blake-Fish-Dent-Ginepri generation failed, not the fans. Like other countries, if U.S. fans have a played to rally behind they will. Look at Switzerland – who did they have before Federer? No one. Spain had a bundle of fantastic players – French Open champs mind you – but no one seized their full attention until Nadal (Moya set the stage). How about that hotbed of tennis, Serbia? Again, no one.
So this is a chicken/egg problem. Trust me, someone comes along that plays big and seizes the throne and has some charisma and no doubt U.S. fandom will be with them. To me Roddick had it to some extent but, and I think Dan’s said this many times and in more accurate, less charitable ways, Roddick began to play not to lose.
We may now be talking about how it was great to have such solid top 20 players like Roddick, Blake and Fish but let’s not pretend that this (2004-2014) has been a great era for U.S. men’s tennis. Roddick’s last slam final was 2009 and no U.S. man has threatened to get to one since then. When one of the current players or future players comes along and plays some brave tennis, I’m sure tennis fans will be behind them.
Scoop Malinowski · January 23, 2014 at 12:51 pm
Well Andrew, Isner plays brave tennis, though not particularly aesthetic tennis, and his own fans turned against him and rooted for Monfils at the US Open last year. But yes American fans will rally behind the next great young American phenom when he emerges. I think…
Dan Markowitz · January 23, 2014 at 12:56 pm
If you watch Izzie or Q-ball play an entire match, it is not very moving. Yes, they’re very good, or I should say, good, players, but they both have the charisma magnetism of a goat and you don’t see them play and think, “I want to play like these guys.” Same thing held true for Roddick, I think, although I liked the way he took back his forehand and who didn’t love trying to hit serves like him.
But you need a charasmatic, aesthetic player to motivate people to play the game. Take Spadea for example, I’d watch him play and think, This guy’s good, but his game was so compact and he didn’t make the game look spectacular the way a Connors or Mac did, and he had zero charisma, so it wasn’t a life-moving experience watching him play.
Scoop Malinowski · January 23, 2014 at 1:42 pm
Spadea actually was averagely entertaining and it wasn’t because he had charisma or color, he had a nice game to watch. His quirky funky personality never came out on court, he bottled it up and played like Ashe or Sampras, like a machine. Stan was like that too but he is really opening up now and showing his emotions and yelling come ons. Stan is really really into it, he lets you know he wants it badly. Even Federer is showing a lot more emotions now. I don’t think we’ll ever see another completely stoic player ever win a major again. Use of emotional adrenaline is a very important factor now because of how physical and competitive pro tennis is.
Andrew Miller · January 23, 2014 at 1:56 pm
Everyone likes a winner – even Sampras, who bottled up the emotion. If Isner wins a slam guarantee fans will be behind him. Isner didn’t much endear himself to anyone with his complaining at the U.S. Open, nor his first round loss at the Australian this year (even with injury).
Players get this idea fans don’t like them. That’s false – we just want them to do better. It’s awful hard to praise players when they don’t pull out the big wins. I’d say fans are pretty rational on this one.
What are we supposed to do, cheer for players when they don’t make round 3? When they aren’t there to support? Sorry, aint happening. These guys and gals need to storm the kingdom to get the support, otherwise why would it be there?
Personally I loved watching Spadea. Also found it awful hard to cheer when he lost to Jerome Golmard some time ago in DC – not because he lost. Because he was no longer in the tournament.
Fans pretty rational to me. Give us a player in the late stages.
Andrew Miller · January 23, 2014 at 2:07 pm
I agree with Scoop on the emotion bit – every player in the Australian has celebrated as if they won the tournament when they win a match. Would have been nice to see a fist pump from Radwanska to get her back into the game vs. Cibulkova – it was as if she wasn’t out there.
Andrew Miller · January 23, 2014 at 2:37 pm
U.S. men advice: WIN. There’s a reason that in the post-Roddick era almost no one’s a household name. I think several will be because they’ll win. This generation has way more hope than the last one – these guys work harder. But they need to win to capture the U.S. fans.
Harold · January 23, 2014 at 3:42 pm
The Great Harry lost in the first round of a the challenger in Maui and Sock retired in same round. Maui Wowi
Andrew Miller · January 23, 2014 at 6:26 pm
To Harold’s point:
Garanganga d. Dancevic
Ito d. Kudla (yikes!)
M. Zverev d. Harrison (we’ve been hearing about Zverev for a while)
Rd. 2:
JJ in play vs. Tsung-Hua Yang
Andrew Miller · January 23, 2014 at 6:27 pm
Sandgren vs. Krajicek
and the one we want to see:
Klahn vs. Marcus Giron. Can the UCLA standout beat a top 100 player?
bjk · January 23, 2014 at 6:33 pm
First Borg, then Edberg, Wilander and Jarryd and the rest. First McEnroe and Connors and then Agassi, Sampras, and Chang. First Ivanisevic and then Djokovic, Cilic, and Ivanovic. First Moya, then the entire Spanish brigade. So it takes one and then the next generation, which was 5-10 at the time, really believe they can do it. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few Japanese and Chinese pros in a few years, after Nishikori and Li Na.
bjk · January 23, 2014 at 6:41 pm
I first got interested in tennis when my parents hosted some pro tennis players in our house during a tournament. I was about 5 years old, and wow, that seemed like the coolest thing in the world. I especially liked that they had big bags full of equipment; there’s just something cool about carrying around your tools. After that, I knew tennis was my sport.
Doogie · January 23, 2014 at 7:32 pm
@Dan:
About the experiences here in Europe about TopStars and influence.
Before Becker won Wimbledon at age 17 Tennis was a Sport for arrogant and rich people in Germany. After his win EVERYONE (mostly men) started (first) to watch Tennis and later tried to play themselves.
Then Graf arrived and same affect to ladies!
At this time there were so much money involving tennis in Germany – and dont know how much tennis tournaments they had but it was a ton (really a ton!) Clay tournaments and Indoors – Pete won a lot of them btw.
Due to Stich this trend continued.
What followed after all 3 retired??
From year to year Tennis lost spectators, followers, players (on amateur level) and most important the money was not still there and all went down till… now (on mens side)
There are no matches to follow on broadcast for free – and with no I mean NO!! Even Lisickis WIMBLEDON final was not on german television!!!
Can u imagine it??? Sadly but true.
Doogie · January 23, 2014 at 7:34 pm
Same here in Austria with Muster.
Scoop: You have a point and I am with you about Tiger and Tennis!
Tiger took away the Tennis people (who are the same target imo) and shifted it to Golf.
Scoop Malinowski · January 23, 2014 at 8:44 pm
Isner is a hard guy to root for, giants usually are, but if he changes some things, take off the hat, make some nice gestures, he could turn it around. That was really a shame to see USA fans turn on him and cheer for Monfils at the US Open.
Scoop Malinowski · January 23, 2014 at 8:46 pm
That guy Garanganga from Zimbabwe keeps popping up in the results. He must be a solid player. Pretty sure he’s a black from Africa which is rare in tennis.
Scoop Malinowski · January 23, 2014 at 8:49 pm
bjk, do you remember any of those players who lodged at your house? My first memory of tennis was seeing Chris Evert in a hotel lobby in Boston, my parents knew of her because she was so famous but they never touched a racquet. I remember we went up to her to sign something and she was so nice I fell in love with her, we had the same hair color. Was about 7 at that time. Started to watch tennis about five years later and always liked to root for Evert. Felt like I knew her from that ten second meeting.
Scoop Malinowski · January 23, 2014 at 8:54 pm
Ben Becker was telling us at the Sarasota Open how German tennis went so far down, they made some bad moves like investing all that $ for the roof on the Hamburg arena. Then the system stopped producing big talents, the new wave players just didn’t have enough talent or drive to make it. It seemed to me like it was a tough position for any young player with talent, as soon as one emerged they got tagged with the ‘next Boris Becker’ or ‘next Graf’ tag which added enormous pressure on these kids. Anke Huber was a really good young talent but they expected her to be the next Graf. No one could be like Graf. Maybe Huber could have been far more successful if the expectations for her weren’t so high. Also having to beat Seles and Capriati and Sanchez Vicario didn’t make things any easier for Huber.
Doogie · January 23, 2014 at 9:38 pm
Yes Hamburg wanted to be the best event outside the Grand Slams (bit like Indian Wells nowadays).
But they did not have a rich owner, the German Tennis Federation had to pay all the cost for the roof.
They believed they needed it because there is a lot of rain.
Stupid decission afterwards.
Scoop Malinowski · January 23, 2014 at 10:02 pm
And Germany just doesn’t have any major players to sell now, outside of Haas who is running on less than a quarter tank. It’s been a long while for Germany. Too bad Schuettler and Kiefer choked that OLY gold medal to Chile in doubles. Blew four match gold medal points up 6-2 in the fourth set tiebreaker. Ouch.
Andrew Miller · January 24, 2014 at 1:13 am
Kerber and Lisicki ! Never underestimate a tennis parent. Germany has tons of players in the 100-200 ranks. U.s. too. And with the wackiness of this years australian it’s going to happen – unexpected players are tired of waiting. I even pick Cibulkova to win the women’s!
EddietheEagle · January 26, 2014 at 8:18 am
Having played as a sponsored overseas player in German league tennis for a few years, you could see golf starting to make real inroads once the tennis boom had quietened down. Businessmen who might otherwise have been funding tennis clubs and teams, as with my club, drifted away from tennis and started to spend their time on the golf course rather than the tennis court. The effect of that was not difficult to see. Becker and Graf left a hard legacy for those who followed. Having said that, the game at club level is wonderfully well organised in Germany. I would say “grab it” to anyone who has the chance to play German league tennis as a sponsored player.