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Jessica Pegula thinks American male tennis players are making positive strides and closing in on landing the United States a men's Grand Slam title. The United States, one of the most successful tennis nations, hasn't had a male Grand Slam champion since Andy Roddick won the 2003 US Open.
On the women's side, the United States never stopped enjoying lots of Grand Slam success. "The woman's American side has been pretty deep for a really long time. I think probably in the past year or two the men finally caught up, with at least the amount of players in the Top 50 or Top 70.
I think they're close. They obviously have a lot of really good players that are amazing athletes and can go deep and have gotten big wins in big tournaments, but since Andy Roddick, it has been a long, long time," Pegula said, per Tennis Up To Date.
Pegula, Cori Gauff on the possibility of the US getting a male Major champion
Gauff, who finished as runner-up at last year's French Open, agrees with Pegula that American male tennis players have been making positive strides.
"Not to be too high on the horse, but the women were holding it down for a while. Now, I will say it's pretty fairly even and I think the fans should enjoy that. Both sides from the US are really doing well. Hopefully, we'll be able to cross that step on the men's side where they can win a Grand Slam," Gauff said.
At the US Open last year, Frances Tiafoe made the semifinal before losing to Carlos Alcaraz in five sets. At this year's Australian Open, three American men - Tommy Paul, Sebastian Korda and Ben Shelton - all made the quarterfinal.
After beating Shelton for his first Grand Slam semifinal, Paul was beaten by eventual champion Novak Djokovic. It remains to be seen if an American male tennis player can end the nation's Grand Slam drought in 2023.