Twenty years of darkness: American men’s tennis hits inglorious milestone

Andy Roddick celebrates after winning match point against Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain in the 2003 US Open men’s singles final at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing, New York. Photograph: Nick Laham/Getty Images

It started out as a trickle.

In 1993, the relatively unheralded Sergi Bruguera won the first of his two consecutive French Open titles, becoming the first Spaniard to claim a men’s major since Manuel Orantes’ triumph at the US Open in 1975 (Arantxa Sánchez Vicario had won the women’s title in Paris in 1989). Then a few years later, in 1998, Bruguera’s countryman, Carlos Moya, claimed the French Open. He was followed by two more Spaniards, with Juan Carlos Ferrero’s triumph in Paris in 2003 and Albert Costa’s victory there a year later. For a country that had a rather modest pedigree, Spain was becoming a presence in men’s tennis.