Drive around Milwaukee on a summer day as I did one day last week and you see empty tennis courts everywhere.

I spent four hours driving in all parts of the city -- north, south, east, west and in the central city. I lost count of how many empty courts I saw. Some of them were cracked and dotted with weeds, but others were pristine, shouting out for a pair of sneakers to mar the surface.

Perhaps the greatest, most storied tennis tournament in the world -- the Championships at Wimbledon -- is going on now. And nobody seems to care.

The television ratings are down for all tennis, including the major tournaments. It's like the old joke: "What if they gave a party and nobody came?" It's not just that tennis tournaments don't draw like they used to, it's that tennis is not really on the radar screen of sports fans, especially in the United States.

I'm old enough to remember Borg and Connors and McEnroe and Lendl. I remember the battles between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova and how people used to hate Martina. Her evolution from villain to fan-favorite is amazing.

What happened between those days to now?

Part of it is the Tiger effect. Tiger Woods made golf cool for young people to play. There is nobody who is making tennis cool for young people. And that's hard to understand.

Golf is so much more difficult. You need expensive clubs, lots of land and years of practice. For tennis, you can smack a ball against a wall, there are courts everywhere, you can buy a racket at Walgreen's, for God's sake and you are liable to return a shot or hit a winner your first time out.

The other thing is that there are no great American tennis players. The top 10 men's players in the world are named Federer, Nadal, Nalbandian, Ljubcic, Roddick, Davydenko, Blake, Robredo, Hewitt and Ancic. The top 10 women are named Mauresmo, Cljisters, Henin-Hardenne, Sharapova, Petrova, Kuznetsova, Davenport, Dementieva, Pierce and Schnyder.

Twenty names. Only three Americans among them: Andy Roddick, James Blake and Lindsay Davenport.

Roddick's flame has burned out, Blake, an African-American who was a great hope, just doesn't seem good enough, and Davenport is either over the hill or near the top of it. The Williams sisters -- Venus and Serena -- captivated the tennis world for awhile but now seem more interested in outside pursuits.

With Andre Agassi announcing his retirement after this year's U.S. Open, tennis has nobody with enough charisma to be an inspiration. An inspiration to play or to watch on television or follow through the newspapers or Internet. Tennis really has become an irrelevant sport. It's like polo or water polo or water ballet.

The pro game has changed because of technology. The big rackets have made it a serve and volley game. Nobody is a shot-maker anymore. And they play their tournaments in places like Luxembourg and Monaco and Brisbane. I mean, who could even find those places on a map?

There are fans, but they are tiny in number.

And it's really a shame.

Tennis is a great game. It's fun to watch and fun to play. You get a great workout in an hour. You can play against people better than you and they will be courteous and keep you hitting the ball. It's a game with great manners and history.

Unfortunately, it's currently a game without a constituency.

10 comments about this article. Post a comment / write a review.

Recent Talkbacks ...

Posted by OMCreader on Aug. 9, 2006 at 10:15 p.m. (report)

Brian said: Look man......No one serves and volleys any more, that was the 90s. And no ones a shot-maker? HELLO! ROGER FEDERER, RAFAEL NADAL i agree that tennis is really on the decline, but Roger Federer is way more interesting to watch than Sampras ever was...And just because he's not American doesnt mean I dont like him

Posted by OMCreader on July 5, 2006 at 4:39 p.m. (report)

Nathan said: Mr. Begel writes: "The big rackets have made it a serve and volley game." But this isn't really true. Pete Sampras was the last great serve-and-volley player -- a style that suits the fast grass of Wimbledon -- in which the player rushes the net immediately after serving and tries to finish out the point with volleys. It's a very exciting and aggressive style of play which is currently very much out of fashion. The big rackets ARE good for volleying of course, but most players these days hang around the baseline and use their big rackets to clobber the ball deep to keep their opponents from approaching. It's dull to watch, but it's dictated more I think by the size and strength of the players (some of them are huge and hugely strong), many of whom are very fast runners but not entirely nimble. This bulking up is the Americanization of sport -- so if you want to blame anyone, blame all the weight trainers out there. But if you want to be reminded of the glory that tennis can be, just watch Ms. Henin-Hardenne's one-handed backhand; it's the most graceful moment in pro sports, and makes the hulking crushers like the Williams sisters look like WWF wrestlers.

Posted by OMCreader on July 1, 2006 at 7:54 p.m. (report)

Amy said: As a long-time tennis fan--and player--who loves to attend the US Open every year, I must sadly agree with with Begel. I think it can be summed up by Roddick's ad about his "mojo" which he then proceeded to lose in the first round. Business before sportsmanship?

Posted by OMCreader on July 1, 2006 at 6:25 p.m. (report)

rachel said: how can you waste your time and space talking about tennis. nobody cares about tennis anymore. oh, i guess that's the point. lol. sorry. it must have been a blonde moment.

Posted by OMCreader on June 30, 2006 at 5:58 p.m. (report)

snob appeal said: tennis players just seem like snobs. there is nobody who seems to be a real person or is interested in public relations. that's a big part of it. the williams sisters were close, but their day is over. we are stuck with a bunch of robots from foreign countries. wow, what appeal.