French Open Won’t End American Men’s Tennis Drought, McEnroe Says
The last time an American won the men’s final at the French Open was in 1999, when Andre Agassi put the finishing touches on his career grand slam with a victory over Andrei Medvedev. And while it’s unlikely that the long Roland Garros drought will end come June 8, John McEnroe believes that one of his fellow countrymen will break through in a major. Eventually. If the odds of an American male claiming one of tennis’ four marquee titles have improved somewhat in recent years, that’s largely a function of the dissolution of the Big Three. In the 20 years between Roger Federer’s first big win at Wimbledon in 2003 and his retirement in September 2022, the Swiss legend and rivals Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic claimed 63 of the 77 majors staged, or 82% of the sport’s most high-profile events. When these three men were dominating the circuit, the rest of the field were reduced to scrabbling over the crumbs. “We are getting closer, [although] some of that is because, you know, Roger and R...