TENNIS: American tennis future as bright as its present

Throughout the Indian Wells men’s final between Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras, the question was asked of where the future of American tennis lies. It’s been asked for years, assuming that Agassi and Sampras would simply decide to stop playing and let youth prevail.

As found in California, the ATP’s slogan of "New Balls, Please" should be remanded to "Advantage, Experience."

Of the four semifinalists at Indian Wells, only Lleyton Hewitt is under 25. Sampras is 30, Agassi right on the verge of doing so and Yevgeny Kafelnikov is certainly no spring chicken, either. If anything, the experience of the veterans should be praised, not decried as the same boring players over and over again.

It’s the no-win situation in its purest form. For years, Agassi was decried as youth led astray, tennis excess that should have been junked to the curb. Now, even in his most impressive career stretch, Agassi finds veterans like himself, Sampras, etc. being gently pushed out of the ATP’s commercial focus.

Especially encouraging, though, is that there are a number of young Americans that have grown up watching Agassi and Sampras — as much as those top two players would hate to admit it — as well as the retired Jim Courier, dependable and still playing Michael Chang and Todd Martin, king of the U.S. Open late night comeback. Four of them, in particular, have been earmarked for stardom.

Jan-Michael Gambill is the one that most everyone knows already, due to his quarterfinal Wimbledon appearance last year and his fast start to this season, culminating in a win at Delray Beach and quarterfinal showing at Indian Wells. Gambill is a player that the ATP hopes can be marketed world-wide as well; not only has he done some walkway modeling in Europe, his penchant for Porsches relates to guys and his looks to women, namely one given nickname of "the male Kournikova."

While one of the four future American stars, Mardy Fish, is not playing in the Ericcson Open which started today, two other youngsters already in the top 200 will be, Andy Roddick and Taylor Dent. How long they will be in the tournament is up to debate, as Roddick must play emerging Israeli Harel Levy in the first round with possible matchups against Marcelo Rios and Sampras while Dent will open again Scheng Schalken, with the winner playing Agassi.

Dent, the son of former tour pro Phil Dent, is an American with the serve-and-volley, attacking game of his Australian father. Impressive in a second round loss to Gustavo Kuerten, Dent showed the ability to attack from nearly any position and from nearly any shot in a rally and had even Brazilian fans applauding his effort at the end of the third set.

Roddick already has a Davis Cup win to his name, thought it was a dead rubber match after Switzerland clinched the tie earlier this year. But his development as junior world champion last year into the top 200 this year has shown great promise for the future, especially as a counterpart of Gambill, Fish and Dent.

Roddick plays mostly from the baseline. He can volley and has a serve that already ranks among the tops in the pros, but he will make a living with his forehand and backhand, passing attacking players while using his net game to occasionally sneak out a few games.

The setup of the players also lends to future classics. Roddick the baseliner, Dent the attacker, Gambill with the all-court game and Fish also coming up the ranks. And now having pumped up their chances, here is the opposite view.

Gambill has already gone through this, but the other three will soon find out as well that the hardest part of being on tour may not entirely be the first year breaking into the top 150, but staying there. Most pros, in the first year, will not have a scouting report on any of the young Americans, yet in the second and third go-around, most veterans will start finding any weaknesses.

It’s the normal circle that every player has to go through. Sampras won the 1990 U.S. Open, but it wasn’t until a few years later, when he started putting the finishes touches on his dominant game, that he truly took flight. Agassi bounced in and out of focus before finding it the past few years, in which he has proved that his remarkable talent would not go to waste.

That will be the next challenge for the young American quartet that tries to take the mantle from Agassi, Sampras, Chang, Courier and Martin. The first challenge is to start beating the top pros, including their idols, right now. And as both Agassi and Sampras showed last weekend and will be trying to do this week in Miami, that will be easier said than done.