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<\/a>tennis express pro player gear<\/p>\nBased on the dominance of World No. 1 Sinner and No. 2 Alcaraz is it probable the pair will combine to capture every Grand Slam championship for the next two to three years?<\/p>\n
Yes and no says ESPN analyst Patrick McEnroe.<\/p>\n
Tennis Now put that question to Patrick McEnroe and Mary Joe Fernandez on today\u2019s ESPN video conference call with the media to promote the network\u2019s US Open coverage starting on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Patrick McEnroe asserts we will see Sincaraz sweep all major titles in the coming years except for this US Open.<\/p>\n
In a bold prediction, McEnroe says an American man will dethrone Sinner and win the US Open.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Full disclosure: Patrick McEnroe was not imbibing the Open\u2019s famed Honey Deuce cocktail during this interview, nor did he appear to be suffering a fever dream approaching the 18th anniversary of the last U.S. team to capture the Davis Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yet, he is seriously sincere an American man\u2014perhaps 2023 finalist Taylor Fritz, Toronto champion Ben Shelton, Tommy Paul or former US Open semifinalist Frances Tiafoe\u2014will break that ignominious streak and rule Flushing Meadows on September 7th.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll go out on a limb right now: There will be an American winning the US Open this year on the men\u2019s side,\u201d McEnroe told Tennis Now. \u201cI\u2019m not gonna say which one because I think there\u2019s a couple of guys that have a chance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo answer your overall question: I do think that Sinner and Alcaraz over the next three four years will dominate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDo I think they\u2019re gonna win every single Slam? No.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething tells me that we\u2019re in for a little bit of a surprise this year at the Open and that\u2019s why I\u2019m gonna say there\u2019s gonna be an American man winning this year\u2019s US Open. You can try to figure out which one that is because I\u2019m not gonna tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been 22 years since Andy Roddick defeated David Nalbandian and Juan Carlos Ferrero back-to-back clad in a Reebok shirt that looked like the NYC subway map to win the 2003 US Open. To put that U.S. drought into perspective, Ferrero has been a part of more Slam titles (5) coaching Carlos Alcaraz in the last three years than all American men have won major singles titles in the last two decades.<\/p>\n
Still, McEnroe is adamant this is the time for an American man to rise up and win the US Open.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mary Joe Fernandez told Tennis Now she believes Sinner and Alcaraz will split the Slam spoils for the next couple of years, however she can envision 2023 US Open semifinalist Shelton breaking that stronghold and winning a maiden major in the coming years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think those two guys for the next two years are the ones to beat,\u201d Fernandez told Tennis Now. \u201cCan someone like a Ben Shelton disrupt them? Yes, I think so.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been really happy with his progress and seeing him develop as a player. I still think he\u2019s got a lot of improvement left to go. But he\u2019s got weapons. He\u2019s another entertainer, another player who really has fun out there. But if he continues on this path of improving he can be someone that can disrupt them. There\u2019s a few others, but it\u2019s gonna be tough because these two guys [Sinner and Alcaraz] have really set the bar high.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, Shelton has reached quarterfinals or better in four of his last 11 Grand Slam appearances and has played like a man on a mission to master a major.<\/p>\n
The good news: The left-handed Shelton owns a lethal serve, a heavy lefty forehand and is comfortable closing net at crunch time. Shelton is holding serve 87 percent this season which is fourth on the ATP Tour behind only Sinner (91 percent), Fritz (88 percent) and Djokovic (88 percent).<\/p>\n
That bad news: Shelton\u2019s return game remains a work in progress. He\u2019s 46th on Tour in return games won, tends to play more tiebreakers than other US Open contenders and his backhand, while improved, can still be stiff and suspect when it comes to hitting backhand passing shots on the run.<\/p>\n
Still, Shelton has a love of the big stage and a massive game to match. He also has the ability to channel emotional energy from enthusiastic crowds into dynamic play on court. So could Shelton be the one to prove McEnroe\u2019s prediction right?<\/p>\n
\u201cTennis seems to be a sport that has young champions all the time, which is not common or normal, it\u2019s ultra impressive,\u201d Shelton said after his Toronto title run, which saw him gut out three 7-6-in-the-third set victories. \u201cYeah, I hope that this week kind of kick starts me and gets me more consistent with the type of tennis that I want to play day-in and day-out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s certainly going to push me to work harder. I feel like I have a good grasp now on the things that really work for me against guys who are playing some of the best tennis in the world, and the things that I need to continue to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, August 20, 2025Photo credit: Garrett Ellwood\/USTA\/US Open The King is a major outlier…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-98394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}