There is no better way to see how the balance of power in world tennis has changed over recent decades than to look at the draw sheets for Grand Slams from 25 to 30 years ago. There you will see dozens and dozens of names from America and Australia and, depending on how far back you go, they often represent well over the half the names present.
And now we come to early May, 2011, which might come to be looked upon as a seminal moment in the history of the sport, for there is not a single player this week in the top ten from the United States for the first time since rankings were introduced, in whatever guise. Give or take a few, the Australians have long gone in any significant numbers, but this is proof that the other traditional powerhouse of the game is really struggling to produce elite players.
It has to be a considerable worry for the sport, because America remains such a vital market for it and the centre of the game's gravity is still there in many ways. The ATP Tour is based in Florida and so is the WTA, and both of them have (North) American Chief Executives (Stacey Allaster is Canadian) who talk in very much in the language of corporate America. There are still 13 events on the main men's tour and 11 events for the women (including the U.S Open in both cases) plus many more of a smaller nature that take place in the States aside from Davis Cup and Fed Cup matches.
Three of the seven Masters series happen in the US - sadly I'm no longer including Monte Carlo as a real Masters - plus one in Canada, while the likes of Germany and whole of South America go without. How much longer can this be the case when a country that so loves winners is simply failing to produce them in tennis?
There is no chippy European triumphalism in pointing this out - indeed this writer finds himself admiring America and its people more the older he gets. And there can be no doubt that professional tennis needs America to be buoyant to be in rude health overall, but as with golf it is failing to cope with the globalised upsurge from other places. Unlike in golf, the corporate support for the game is not so vast and solid when it comes to tennis.
What's to be done? A bit like Britain on a larger scale, there does not appear to be that much of a problem with the sheer numbers playing Stateside, it is just that elite perfomers seem so hard to find. The situation is particularly acute when it comes to the women, especially as the lesser-spotted Williams sisters will soon both be the wrong side of thirty. A country as large as America will always produce some players but there do not appear to be large stocks coming through. Ryan Harrison, 18, is touted as the great hope but does not yet look good enough to be nailed on. Sloane Stephens is among a handy crop of girls, but there is nothing spectacular on the horizon.
Lots of people are looking for the answers but the time is coming when tennis is going to have to confront the fact that the West's greatest nation is losing its grip on tennis, and this week in May 2011 will be looked back upon as a major watershed.
One reason tennis is losing traction in the USA is a lack of an edge to the rivalries at the top of the game. Pure tennis lovers will always swoon over Roger and Rafa but the cordial - and very admirable - way they have conducted their relationship is not the stuff that forces its way onto the backpages - or prominent web pages in modern parlance - in the way that the likes of Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe once did.
If you want a reminder of edginess you have to look to the old days, and that is just what has been happening, again, between Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. Well-sourced reports in America tell of how Agassi was angered by Sampras giving him a coating when they met recently at Madison Square Garden, the Las Vegan believing that his old rival was not entering into the spirit of the event. The result is that when they were due to feature in a long-scheduled follow-up in Buenos Aires Agassi did not want to play his old foe, so the promoters had to draft in Jim Courier and Mardy Fish to play the pair separately and keep them apart. Apparently the atmosphere was frosty between the two greats during the 48 hour trip to the South American capital and they stayed away from each other.
The strains in their relationship relating to Agassi's autobiography have been well-documented, but it is a reminder that the human connections between top tennis players are rarely straightforward, regardless of the sheen that is on the surface. The insecurity and ego that drives players on, perhaps most obvious in Agassi when it comes to recent champions, makes genuine friendship difficult, and it all the more remarkable that Federer and Nadal have remained on such good terms. It is the Spaniard who amazes me - he simply does not appear to have much edge to his character. It is more apparent in Djokovic, Federer and Murray. Nadal seems to be a one-off in so many ways.
It never does to complain to people about where you find yourself on the tennis tour. Not only do the general public rightly consider people like me to be extremely lucky, but as someone who has spent months and months continuously touring with the England cricket team around South Asia in the not-too-distant-past it is something I am very aware of.
Yet it has to be said that Madrid's Caja Magica remains the ugliest of venues, and each time I go there I wonder just what the architects must have been on when they designed it. Situated in a non-descript part of the city's south, its exterior is a grotesquely ugly metal (not magic) box that does not get a great deal better when you are inside it. Think of a high-tech maximum security jail or a nuclear energy plant and you are along the right lines.
There have been less complaints from the players this year because an effort has been made to improve their facilities, although some were unhappy at the lack of clay on the courts. The attempted green surroundings, which look like some ghastly New Town, have still not bedded in. Things may improve over time, but there will always been an element of folly about the place.
Something else that might concern the tournament was the very small amount of media present beyond those involved on the television side or working for agencies. This appears to be a result of the switch in dates with the Italian Open, which has clearly given the Rome tournament the upper hand. While Madrid matters the same on paper, what goes on at the Foro Italico this week - not at altitude - has more relevance to the French Open. In these straitened times quite a few media outlets seem to have taken the decision that, given a choice between the two, it is now Rome more worthy of greater coverage.
You knew Darren Cahill - decent bloke, highly respected coach - had become a member of Team Murray when he very politely declined to give an interview this week about his work with Andy. In informal situations everyone in the Murray camp, including the man himself, is friendly and good company but when it comes to saying something 'on the record', however uncontroversial, the shutters still come down quicker than an Andy Roddick serve.
It is somewhat tiring and depressing to keep raking over the subject of what is going on at the Lawn Tennis Association, especially with the plentfiul number of good people there doing their best to improve the sport in our country. But it is unavoidable at times, and you have to ask where the recent announcement of Bruce Phillips leaves the increasingly isolated Chief Executive Roger Draper.
Phillips is little-known outside the sport but had wielded enormous influence at Roehampton as effectively Draper's right hand man in charge of communication and commercial matters. In fact, some there will tell you that he was actually more powerful than the hapless Draper himself. Anyway, hot on the heels of Draper's other right hand man departing - Steven Martens, in charge of the pure tennis side - Phillips has signalled that he will go after Wimbledon in order to pursue his dream of setting up his own sports consultancy business.
As someone who did some good work on the commercial side and was not afraid of getting involved in the messier side of things, such as the many departures from the LTA, Draper is going to miss him hugely. Apparently there are no plans to replace Belgian Martens at present, fingers having been burned so often when employing foreigners in recent years, so Draper is up the creek now without his two most trusted paddles.
The two men with most influence left in the national training department are now long-term LTA veterans, Leon Smith on the men's side, Nigel Sears on the women's, and they are going to report directly to the Chief Executive. It is a desperate situation for Draper to find himself in, having invested so much in big name foreigners who have all come and gone, and now following them out is his closest confidant Philipps.
The question now is whether the main LTA Board is perturbed by what is going on, and if they are prepared to act upon the position of the Chief Executive, his credibility now so questioned and position so isolated. Main sponsors AEGON are bound to be unimpressed, and the hierarchy of the All England Club are most definitely unamused. Politicians with an eye on the game - and I am not just talking about Baroness Billingham - are looking on with interest. One thing for sure is that Draper will be praying for some favourable draws for Britain's handful of international class players in the next eight weeks, because serial defeats are going to mean some blow torch scrutiny.
Spent a fascinating morning last weekend watching talent identification in action at Wimbledon under the eye of irrepressible All England Club head coach and tennis evangelist Dan Bloxham. One of the eye-opening things was how much, beyond the obvious seeking of hand/eye co-ordination, the natural movement tendencies of a talented youngster are put under the microscope. It was a reminder of just how essential this aspect is in the modern game.
The All England's Wimbledon Junior Tennis Initiative, which is approaching its tenth birthday, is a relatively simple idea which sees coaches go into local primary schools to assess potential talent. Free coaching every weekend over a period of years is then offered, with those who show unusual ability fast-tracked into programmes that give more intensive support. Working across just two London boroughs with children mostly from what might be described as non-typical tennis backgrounds, it has already unearthed (in addition to the thousands who will have developed a love of the game) a host of nationally ranked players, and a few who are playing on the international stage.
By my calculations it would cost little more than ?2m annually for the Lawn Tennis Association to roll out 20 similar programmes in our cities across the country. The LTA find all sorts of ways to spend their copious funds, and it would be interesting to know if there could be anything more cost-effective in growing the sport than this.
This is where we salute the best performance of the week by a British player of any description who, as mentioned above, is not Andy Murray.
Elena Baltacha takes the honours by virtue of reaching her first clay court semi-final, at the $100k women's event in France at Cagnes-Sur-Mer, where she beat top seed Kristina Barrois.
Supplementary mention for Laura Robson, who made the semis of the $50k tournament at Indian Harbour in Florida.
