It’s not hyperbolic to say the game in the States is alive because of African American players like the Williams sisters and Sloane Stephens
There’s been no shortage of anxiety over the future of American tennis over the last decade.
Andy Roddick’s abrupt retirement during the 2012 US Open left the United States without an active men’s grand slam champion for the first time in 129 years, since the inception of what then was called the US National Championships. And while Venus and Serena Williams have combined for 30 major singles championship, 121 WTA titles and 173 finals appearances – and counting – the hand-wringing over their successor on the women’s side persisted.
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