Opinion: Here come the Americans! Another home US Open champion this year is perhaps not wishful thinking

Ask any Australian, French, English or American tennis player – current or former – and they will tell you that there is perhaps no honour bigger than winning a home Grand Slam. It’s a lot like a F1 driver winning a home race. Remember what Lewis Hamilton said after winning the 2024 British Grand Prix at Silverstone?

“There’s no greater feeling than finishing at the front here.”

You don’t need to be a sports expert to understand that winning a major tournament or event in front of home supporters, on home soil is a slice of the triumph pie that is sweeter than anything else. Ask the home fans and they will tell you that regardless of who is among the “best in the world” in the sport, in terms of past successes and rankings, it’s a home boy or girl that they cheer for the loudest.

It’s just the natural way of things. Even someone like Rafael Nadal had to win over the French crowd at Roland Garros. So, it would be fair to say that the American tennis fans are really rooting for at least one American champion at the end of the US Open this year, just like in 2023 when Coco Gauff won the women’s singles title to become the first American teenager to win the title since Serena Williams in 1999.

The sheer number of US participants in both the men’s and women’s draws at Flushing Meadows this time is, of course, a very encouraging sign for those who want to see a home champion. There are as many as forty-eight American players in the singles draws combined at the year’s last Grand Slam this time (23 men and 25 women). That’s the highest number of American players in their home Slam since 1997, when there were 51 American participants.

The women’s draw in particular this year is dominated by American muscle. There are as many as five US women in the Top 10 seeds – Coco Gauff (3rd seed), Jessica Pegula (4th seed), Madison Keys (6th seed but lost to Renata Zarazua in first round), Amanda Anisimova (8th seed) and Emma Navarro (10th seed). In the men’s draw meanwhile, there are two Americans – Taylor Fritz (4th seed) and Ben Shelton (6th seed) in the top 10 seeded players’ list. But while numbers do push up probabilities on paper, can an American realistically win a singles title in New York this time? And can it maybe be in the men’s draw – the tougher of the two draws for the home players?

US Open to see first American men’s singles winner since 2003?

Yes, says former professional player and a former captain of the US Davis Cup team, Patrick McEnroe. The 59-year-old has put his money on an American winning the men’s singles title this year. If that happens, it will in fact be the first instance of a home men’s champion at the year’s last Slam in 22 years. Andy Roddick was the last American man to win the US Open title – back in 2003.

On the face of it, you would say that the top two favourites to win the men’s singles crown are – Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. The top picks in the women’s draw are likely to be Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka. According to a report in USA Today, these are also the players who are the top US bookmakers’ favourites to win the titles. But, could you really bet completely against the Americans at their home Slam? One look at the top American contenders for the title in the women’s draw, ie – Gauff will tell you that she has so far won two Grand Slam singles titles, including one on hard court (Gauff won the 2023 US Open title). And then there’s someone like Pegula, who was the runner-up at Flushing Meadows last year and also Navarro, who was a semi-finalist last year.

There has been an American player in the last four women’s Grand Slam singles finals. Considering the women’s draw is much more open, across all four Slams, it would be fair to say perhaps that there is a much bigger chance of an American woman pushing the likes of Swiatek and Sabalenka and winning the US Open singles title this year than a similar triumph in the men’s draw, which has the two current behemoths – Sinner and Alcaraz and of course the joint most successful tennis player of all time (in terms of singles Slam titles won) – Novak Djokovic.

But let us not for a second think that Patrick McEnroe’s prediction is just an off-the-cuff prophecy.

American men’s tennis players have been steadily becoming stronger for a while now and one of the big ‘feeders’ which has been contributing to the steady supply line of quality American tennis players has been the NCAA programme. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) organises athletic programmes of US colleges across over one thousand institutions in the country. This programme involves approximately 500,000 US student athletes annually and tennis is one of the most popular and eventually extremely successful sports in the NCAA programme.

NCAA’s role in rise of US tennis

Historically, legends like John McEnroe (Stanford), Arthur Ashe (UCLA) and Billie Jean King (California State) transitioned from being collegiate stars to professional stalwarts. And that tradition is still a very strong one in the USA. After Wimbledon 2023, there were 17 former US collegiate athletes in the men’s and women’s Top 100 tennis rankings combined. In March last year, that number had gone up to 20, with five former US collegiate athletes in the WTA Top 100 singles rankings, including Navarro and 15 in the ATP Rankings for the top 100, including the likes of Ben Shelton. The 22-year-old made the semi-finals of the Australian Open this year, the quarter-finals at Wimbledon and is seeded 6th at the US Open this time.

In 2023, Shelton made headlines when the then 20-year-old entered the Australian Open quarter-finals. And to think that less than two years before that, he was playing collegiate tennis for the Florida Gators. In 2022, he won the NCAA singles title. Shelton, in fact, became the first NCAA men’s singles champion to make the Australian Open quarter-finals the very next year since Arthur Ashe in 1966. Ben’s father, Bryan Shelton, was the head coach at Georgia Tech and Ben’s rapid success on the ATP Tour meant Bryan had to give up that position to accompany his son.

Also, don’t forget about Taylor Fritz – last year’s men’s singles runner-up at the US Open. His final appearance in 2024 ended a 15-year drought for an American Slam finalist. The 6-foot 5-inch tall men’s 4th seed and the top-ranked American this year at Flushing Meadows made a semi-final appearance at Wimbledon this year, making quite an impression on 8-time Grand Slam champion and an American great, Andre Agassi.

Fritz, the 2015 junior US Open champion, has been billed as one of the American players who is very close to winning a Slam title. This could well be his year.

When it comes to hard court tennis, you really can’t count out the Americans – they are, after all, born and bred on these courts. One bad day for Sinner and Alcaraz could potentially open the door for the likes of Fritz, Shelton, Tommy Paul (14th seed) and Frances Tiafoe Jr. (17th seed) to push the rest of the field hard.

Entering the US Open as a top 10 player for the first time, Ben Shelton starts off with a confident 6-3 6-2 6-4 win vs Buse! pic.twitter.com/mKSB1iaRpW

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 24, 2025

The US has always had a very strong and vibrant tennis culture, but there was a definite lull in terms of world domination after the Connors, Sampras, Agassi and Courier eras in the men’s game and the Billie Jean King, Chris Evert and Serena and Venus Williams era in the women’s.

As far as the men’s game is concerned, there’s no doubt that the biggest contributor to that was the history-defying domination of the ‘Top 3’, ie, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. The Americans were always there, but consigned to the sidelines by a Swiss, a Spaniard and a Serbian. Which is why, not that domination is over and despite the fact that Sinner and Alcaraz have divided every Grand Slam title between themselves since the 2024 Australian Open, American tennis players are once again being touted as potential dark horses in the men’s game and are slowly inching their way towards changing that tag to favourites.

Tennis is not a cheap sport to play and that is another reason why many Americans have access to quality tennis facilities and coaching – they can afford it. Not every professional tennis player is successful and not every professional tennis player actually ends up making an annual profit, because often the costs far outweigh the money earned via prize money and sponsorships. Even for those who haven’t turned professional, the costs can go through the roof.

According to an ESPN report published in 2023, the annual fees at the very well-known IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, were (at that time) $88,900 for standard 10 students. That’s almost Rs. 78 lakh INR every year in just coaching fees. But then there are families which can afford these fees for their children. While the best facilities don’t always guarantee success, it does make the road ahead easier if the child is naturally talented and has a bent of mind that allows him or her to put in the hard work needed to keep getting better.

Can an American spoil Alcaraz and Sinner’s party?

Jessica Pegula, ranked 4th in the world currently and the 4th seed at the US Open this year, is the daughter of billionaire Terry Pegula, an oil and gas mogul who also owns the NFL Buffalo Bills team as well as the Buffalo Sabres team in the NHL.

The American women have had decent runs at the US Open for a while now. They haven’t managed to dominate consistently, but Sloane Stephens’ singles title in 2017 was a landmark win for American tennis, also because that was an all-American final (Stephens vs Madiso Keys). Gauff’s title win in 2023 saw another home champion. But the men have had to wait for a long time – for 22 years to be precise.

Let’s be honest about one thing – the likes of Sinner, Alcaraz and Djokovic are not invincible at the US Open. Alcaraz, who in fact won his first Slam title ever at Flushing Meadows in 2022, was stunned by then world number 74, Botic van De Zandschulp, in the second-round last year. Defending champion Djokovic, meanwhile, was shown the door in the third round in four sets by Alexei Popyrin. Defending men’s champion Sinner, meanwhile, had to withdraw from the final of the Cincinnati Open recently due to an illness, which reports claimed to be “high fever and flu-like symptoms”. Will he manage to hit top gear?

When in prime form, though, many experts pick Sinner as the best hard-court men’s tennis player in the world and a Sinner vs Alcaraz final (top two men’s seeds) is of course very much on the cards. These two have, in fact, faced-off in the last two Slam finals (French Open and Wimbledon) and a third one at the US Open will be historic. No two players have ever played each other in three Grand Slam men’s singles finals in one year since the beginning of the Open (professional) era in 1968. Sinner and Alcaraz could do what hasn’t been done in 57 years this time, in New York City.

A group of extremely talented American players, though, will be itching to play a big role in ensuring that statistic doesn’t go down in the history books.

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