John Isner branded the efforts of
American men's players at the Australian Open "very disappointing" as
his loss completed the worst ever US performance in Melbourne on Friday.
Providing an American has
entered, there has always been at least one in the last 16 of the tournament in
the open era—highlighting the depths to which American men's tennis has
plunged.
Isner's exit to Spain's Feliciano
Lopez followed earlier defeats for the likes of Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish,
and leaves the once-dominant nation scratching its head as to where the next
hero is going to come from.
"It's very disappointing,"
said Isner. "That's not a good effort from the Americans this tournament.
And, you know, I knew going in today I was the last one left and I wanted to
keep on going, but it just didn't happen.
"But it's very ugly, to be
honest, to have no one in the round of 16. We've got to try to rectify that
next time the big tournaments roll."
The last American to win in
Melbourne was Andre Agassi, who won his third and final Australian Open in
2003. Other US tennis greats including Pete Sampras, John McEnroe and Jimmy
Connors have also lifted the trophy.
Mardy Fish, 30, is the current
top-ranked American at number eight but has never been beyond the
quarter-finals at a grand slam, while former world number one Roddick, 29, is a
fading force.
Isner, whose best grand slam
performance is last year's US Open quarter-finals, is ranked 17th but the next
American player in the rankings is 23-year-old Donald Young, at 42.
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