Paul J. Bereswill / AP

Andy Roddick, who lost in the third round of the U.S. Open, is the last U.S. male to win a major.

The big difference between golf and tennis is that tennis players, like girl gymnasts, are plucked young from the vine and sent to tennis camps. Young golfers stay at home and still learn the game much on their own. (Yes, there are golf academies, too, but many more golfers come up outside that system.) Many U.S. tennis players learn to play a corporate style endorsed by the academies. Once Agassi came out of Nick Bollettieri’s famous academy, the die was cast. Every kid had to go the same way.

One effect of the academies is that you don’t see American men attacking the net much anymore. That’s because they have to learn to hit from the baseline to win and advance in the junior tournaments. And if you grow up afraid to come to the net because you don’t want to lose to a 9-year-old, you’re never going to learn to attack.

It has to be a factor. Just look at the women’s side. The two greatest players of this or most any generation are Venus and Serena Williams. Both know how to attack the net. Neither went to a tennis academy. And Oudin is the product of a local, not a national, program.

The kids are out there. They always are. But it could be that in their lust to produce champions, America’s tennis parents are doing their kids a disservice by shipping them to the tennis factories instead of sending them to the club or the town park with a racket and a handful of used balls. Maybe every kid needs to find his own style before we inflict one on him. This is especially true of males, who mature later than females, and could afford to wait. But they don’t because the industry has made it so darned important to win 12-year-old tournaments.

Even if there is no change in the system, America will produce another champion. That’s inevitable. But it’s been a long time since Sampras and Agassi retired, and there hasn’t been much for an American fan to cheer when the men take the court since. It’s a drought unprecedented in the sport.

Will the next American champion please stand up?

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