I spent four hours driving in all parts of the city -- north, south, east, west and in the central city. I lost count of how many empty courts I saw. Some of them were cracked and dotted with weeds, but others were pristine, shouting out for a pair of sneakers to mar the surface.
Perhaps the greatest, most storied tennis tournament in the world -- the Championships at Wimbledon -- is going on now. And nobody seems to care.
The television ratings are down for all tennis, including the major tournaments. It’s like the old joke: "What if they gave a party and nobody came?" It’s not just that tennis tournaments don’t draw like they used to, it’s that tennis is not really on the radar screen of sports fans, especially in the United States.
I’m old enough to remember Borg and Connors and McEnroe and Lendl. I remember the battles between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova and how people used to hate Martina. Her evolution from villain to fan-favorite is amazing.
What happened between those days to now?
Part of it is the Tiger effect. Tiger Woods made golf cool for young people to play. There is nobody who is making tennis cool for young people. And that’s hard to understand.
Golf is so much more difficult. You need expensive clubs, lots of land and years of practice. For tennis, you can smack a ball against a wall, there are courts everywhere, you can buy a racket at Walgreen’s, for God’s sake and you are liable to return a shot or hit a winner your first time out.
The other thing is that there are no great American tennis players. The top 10 men’s players in the world are named Federer, Nadal, Nalbandian, Ljubcic, Roddick, Davydenko, Blake, Robredo, Hewitt and Ancic. The top 10 women are named Mauresmo, Cljisters, Henin-Hardenne, Sharapova, Petrova, Kuznetsova, Davenport, Dementieva, Pierce and Schnyder.
Twenty names. Only three Americans among them: Andy Roddick, James Blake and Lindsay Davenport.
Roddick’s flame has burned out, Blake, an African-American who was a great hope, just doesn’t seem good enough, and Davenport is either over the hill or near the top of it. The Williams sisters -- Venus and Serena -- captivated the tennis world for awhile but now seem more interested in outside pursuits.
With Andre Agassi announcing his retirement after this year’s U.S. Open, tennis has nobody with enough charisma to be an inspiration. An inspiration to play or to watch on television or follow through the newspapers or Internet. Tennis really has become an irrelevant sport. It’s like polo or water polo or water ballet.
The pro game has changed because of technology. The big rackets have made it a serve and volley game. Nobody is a shot-maker anymore. And they play their tournaments in places like Luxembourg and Monaco and Brisbane. I mean, who could even find those places on a map?
There are fans, but they are tiny in number.
And it’s really a shame.
Tennis is a great game. It’s fun to watch and fun to play. You get a great workout in an hour. You can play against people better than you and they will be courteous and keep you hitting the ball. It’s a game with great manners and history.
Unfortunately, it’s currently a game without a constituency.
With a history in Milwaukee stretching back decades, Dave tries to bring a unique perspective to his writing, whether it's sports, politics, theater or any other issue.
He's seen Milwaukee grow, suffer pangs of growth, strive for success and has been involved in many efforts to both shape and re-shape the city. He's a happy man, now that he's quit playing golf, and enjoys music, his children and grandchildren and the myriad of sports in this state. He loves great food and hates bullies and people who think they are smarter than everyone else.
This whole Internet thing continues to baffle him, but he's willing to play the game as long as OnMilwaukee.com keeps lending him a helping hand. He is constantly amazed that just a few dedicated people can provide so much news and information to a hungry public.
Despite some opinions to the contrary, Dave likes most stuff. But he is a skeptic who constantly wonders about the world around him. So many questions, so few answers.
