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 Rafa aren’t there and Novak’s 38, and so the door is open for a lot of players,” McEnroe said Friday during a Zoom call with reporters. “Obviously, the key thing is, we gotta get a Ben Shelton to win one. We gotta get some American men to win some majors. And that would make it, to me, much more interesting, if [Frances] Tiafoe, or Tommy Paul [stepped up].”

McEnroe has logged on to talk up TNT Sports’ first go-around in Paris, an opportunity that became available after parent company Warner Bros. Discovery snatched up the rights to the Open in a 10-year, $650 million deal. And while the host network is new—prior to WBD’s acquisition last June, NBC had aired the men’s and women’s finals since 1983—there’s nothing particularly novel about America’s disappearing act. The last time a Yank won a men’s major was in 2003, when Andy Roddick beat Juan Carlos Ferrero in straight sets at the U.S. Open, just 63 days after Federer claimed his first singles title.

McEnroe likened the U.S. men’s hard-luck streak to the interregnum between the end of the NBA’s Jordan Era and the dawn of all things LeBron James. “Maybe the ratings aren’t quite as high as when Magic and Larry and Jordan were dominating, but basketball’s continued to remain popular,” McEnroe said, before adding that, like the NBA in the immediate aftermath of MJ’s final retirement, tennis could sorely use a new stateside superhero.

“We need a fresh generation in our sport, big time,” McEnroe said. “It’s a transition period where we have to do a much better job [of] marketing ourselves, and hopefully this is … the beginning of something where we can do just that, with this tournament.” For all that, the road to victory would seem to run through defending champ Carlos Alcaraz and world No. 1 Jannik Sinner, although it’d be folly to count out the last active member of the old trio of greats. (That said, Djokovic has struggled on clay of late.)

On the women’s side of the ledger, the U.S. field is far more formidable, with four Americans—Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys and Emma Navarro—coming in ranked among the global top 10. And while McEnroe was quick to acknowledge that “we never had the same problem with the women” during Serena Williams’ reign, no dominant player has emerged since she won her last major eight years ago. No fewer than 18 different women have earned a major title since Williams’ 2017 Australian Open capper.

Per ATP rankings, the top American men’s contender is worldwide No. 4 Taylor Fritz, who has never seemed in his element on clay. A deep run by No. 12 Paul, meanwhile, would likely culminate in a showdown with Alcaraz in the quarterfinals.

McEnroe acknowledged that TNT could use a strong showing from the American camp if it’s to improve on last year’s ratings. Despite the transition from big-reach network TV to cable, TNT doesn’t have a terribly daunting task ahead of it. NBC’s coverage of the 2024 Alcaraz-Alexander Zverev final averaged 1.62 million viewers, while the Iga Świątek-Jasmine Paolini championship round scared up just 756,000 viewers over the course of a grueling five-hour broadcast.

“It would be nice for us here, obviously, if we were able to get an American male—which hasn’t happened in over 20 years—to win a major,” McEnroe said. “Taylor, Tommy: Someone’s going to break through.” Almost immediately after making this pronouncement, McEnroe walked it back a bit, acknowledging the parallels between the Big Three and what he calls the “New Two.”

“Jannik and Alcaraz are not going to win every title … but then again, I didn’t think the other three guys were going to win as much as they did,” McEnroe said. “So, I don’t know.”

When asked if he’d like to try his hand at a different form of televised self-expression now that he’s 33 years into his broadcast career, McEnroe said he’s been pushing to do a ManningCast-style sidecar show with his brother, Patrick.

“I’ve been pushing for that, so one of these networks someday will hopefully listen,” McEnroe said. “Maybe it’ll be TNT. … That would be absolutely where I’d like to be headed. But with tennis we haven’t had that luxury where, ‘oh, the ratings are so good that we’re going to do [a simulcast].’”

McEnroe went on to say that he and his brother had discussed adapting the Bros. Manning formula for an ESPN tournament, before revealing that the idea was shelved. “We did discuss this … but then Serena was playing her last one, it was the third round, and we canceled it. But yes, I would love to do something like that.”

TNT Sports’ 300 hours of live coverage from Roland Garros begins Sunday, May 25 at 5 a.m. ET on TNT, truTV and the soon-to-be-rebranded streaming service, Max. Among the tennis luminaries that will be calling the action include the McEnroes, Agassi and Jim Courier, as well as Chris Evert, Venus Williams and Linsday Davenport.