MELBOURNE, Australia — Wresting back control of world tennis remains a long-term project. For now, the American men at the Australian Open are delighted to have taken over Locker Room B, just off the transport corridor deep inside Rod Laver Arena.
“We pretty much own that,” said Bjorn Fratangelo, a 23-year-old from Pittsburgh. “We are all in there, and pretty much every American is in the same section of the locker room. We are seeing each other and wanting each other to do well, and I think it really helps us.”
There is strength in numbers, strength in camaraderie, and although the United States will almost certainly never again have as many top competitors as it had in the 1970s, when more than a third of the players in the major singles draws were American, there is definitely room for the country to become a much bigger factor.