The American public only cares about tennis if Americans are winning. As far as the women's game is concerned everything is cool, but a mighty amount of dollars is resting on the 19-year-old Andy Roddick on the men's side, and yesterday he was beaten 4-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of the French Open by Australia's Wayne Arthurs.
"Wayne beats names," said Roddick, with the obvious implication. But many are beginning to wonder if the boy Roddick is all he has been cracked up to be.
As a freshman Roddick zoomed last year from number 158 to number 14, raising hopes in the US that here at last was somebody to match Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Michael Chang and Todd Martin, all but Martin winning grand slams. His serve is a whipcrack, and his forehand a weapon of considerable potential, but everybody is now muttering about his weaknesses.
Andre Agassi, who carried on where he left off in Italy with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 first-round victory over the French qualifier Eric Prodon, sympathises with Roddick.
"Everybody goes through it. It comes down to what those weaknesses are, and what you need to do is continually improve. If you don't, you are going to get worse, because everybody else is improving."
Arthurs, who lives in Pinner, Middlesex, has one of the finest left-arm serves in the game - some would say the best. "He has about 72 different serves from the same toss, and you're never sure what's coming," said Roddick, who tried to stay upbeat but was clearly extremely disappointed.
"I don't know half as much as most of the guys out here," he admitted, adding that he believed much of the learning process was in his head.
Roddick may need a more experienced coach to push him forward to the next stage, assuming he is able. His return of serve is often poor, notably on the double-fisted backhand, while his movement and variety need to improve sharply.
A major upset appeared to be unfolding when Lleyton Hewitt, the world number one, trailed 6-4, 5-0 against Russia's Andrei Stoliarov, a lucky loser. But Stoliarov tightened up when serving for a two-sets lead, and again in the fourth set when 5-3 up, Hewitt winning 4-6, 7-6, 6-0, 7-5.
Gustavo Kuerten, winner for the last two years, had a similar wobble before beating Davide Sanguinetti of Italy 6-7, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. But Yevgeny Kafelnikov, fifth seed, went out in the second round, losing 7-6, 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 to Argentina's Mariano Zabaleta.
In the women's competition, there were wins for both the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, as well as the reigning champion Jennifer Capriati. But Anna Kournikova, who can scarcely be described as a serious player these days, went out 6-4, 6-3 in the first round against the Australian wild card Christina Wheeler.
Still struggling to find form after a a stress fracture in the left foot sidelined her for a long period last year, Kournikova said: "I did not expect to come out here and play my best tennis. I made a few technical changes in my game as well and this was not enough for me to regain my confidence."
