AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
American men have not been dominating the tennis world like they once did decades ago. In fact, it's been 23 years since an American won the men's singles U.S. Open. But as NPR's Bill Chappell reports, a young player from Florida has a chance to change that later today.
BILL CHAPPELL, BYLINE: Minutes after he earned a spot in the men's final at the U.S. Open, Ben Shelton spoke to the cheering crowd, as heard on ESPN.
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BEN SHELTON: I'm going to leave it all on the court. I hope you guys come and back me. Let's do this for the USA.
CHAPPELL: Shelton is trying to do something the USA hasn't done since 2003. That's when Andy Roddick became the last American man to win the U.S. Open. Back then, Shelton was almost 1 year old. David Shaftel is the editor of the Second Serve and Open Tennis magazine. He says no one knew the men would see two barren decades.
DAVID SHAFTEL: It just looked like Roddick would be the next Sampras-Agassi, McEnroe-Connors.
CHAPPELL: Making today's final even more significant, Shelton, who's biracial, will look to break the U.S. drought in the stadium named after the last Black American man to win the tournament, Arthur Ashe in 1968. It's also not just the U.S. Open. American men haven't won any Grand Slam singles title since 2003.
So what changed? It depends who you ask, but top young U.S. athletes are tempted away by other lucrative sports, and tennis officials have recognized they needed to invest in better coaching and more clay courts. That's partly because tennis players use much more spin today, which used to be more of a clay court strategy. Hugh Clarke (ph) is a coach and analyst. He says European men who played on clay were ready to exploit spin.
HUGH CLARKE: You can create more angles if you have more spin. You can get the ball jumping off the court if you use more spin.
CHAPPELL: Then there's the parity issue. Shaftel says the elite players started focusing on winning more Grand Slams.
SHAFTEL: What happened to American men's tennis is Roger Federer and then, of course, Nadal and Djokovic. These guys are why Americans haven't won.
CHAPPELL: As for today's most dominant players, Jannik Sinner is out with an injury, and Carlos Alcaraz is coming back from an injury, but Shelton eliminated him in a five-set marathon. Those pulling for an American man to win in New York include Andy Roddick. Here he is on his podcast, "Served."
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ANDY RODDICK: Is this the time? Is this the one that we've been waiting for for so long?
CHAPPELL: To answer that question, Shelton will face the tournament's No. 1 seed, Alexander Zverev, whom he's never beaten. The six-foot-six German won the French Open earlier this year. As for the pressure of the moment, Hugh Clarke says Shelton shows signs of reaching a new level.
CLARKE: Shelton especially has shown that he can be quite clutch in big matches and in big moments.
CHAPPELL: Shelton says he's feeling the most confident in his game he ever has. In today's final, we'll get to see what kind of history he can make.
Bill Chappell, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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