The US hasn’t had a male grand slam champ since 2003. Is the drought about to end?

When 17-year-old Michael Chang won the French Open in 1989, it was a huge event for American tennis. Not only was it the story of a teenager coming from seemingly nowhere to win a major, it also represented the end of a nearly (gasp!) five-year drought of men’s slam champions for the United States. After all, never before had there been more than four consecutive calendar years in the entire history of the sport when an American had not claimed one of the four slams.

Chang’s victory ushered in a golden age for American men’s tennis. He was joined by Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Jim Courier. Collectively the group won a total of 27 grand slam titles (with Sampras’s 14 leading the way) over a 15-year period, from Chang’s win in Paris through to Agassi’s last major, at the Australian Open in 2003.

And things seemed to be just fine for the next generation of American men after Andy Roddick, then just 21, won the US Open later in 2003. Considered the future of American tennis since he was a teenager, Roddick had seemingly fulfilled his promise. Most thought his lethal serve would help him to a few more majors on fast surfaces before his career ended.

But it never happened. While Roddick had a hall of fame career that included finishing as a year-end No 1, he also had the misfortune of playing in the same era as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Roddick would reach another four grand slam finals, and four times he would come away the runner-up to Federer (his 2009 five-set Wimbledom defeat to the Swiss was particularly heartbreaking).

And so, in year 19, when will the drought end? Why can’t the men equal their female compatriots Serena and Venus Williams, Sofia Kenin and Sloane Stephens, who have won 22 grand