Morrison completes the American nightmare

Sit down and make yourself comfortable. For the first time since 1922, there will be no American men in the second week of Wimbledon. Jeff Morrison followed his 12 compatriots out of the Championships just before 7pm last night to make modern tennis history.

The debate as to how this has happened will rage on long into the summer, but the truth is that American men's tennis has been in decline for some time. As Pam Shriver points out, there has long been a dearth of young talents able to replace the golden generation of the Nineties.

"Behind the greats like Pete Sampras, Jim Courier, Andre Agassi and Michael Chang," the former Wimbledon doubles champion explained, "there is no one really ready to challenge. James Blake did well against Richard Krijicek, but was not quite experienced enough; Taylor Dent was unlucky to lose three tie-breaks; and Andy Roddick was completely outclassed. As for Jeff Morrison, he could not have done much more when you consider he was a lucky loser from the qualifiers. My honest opinion is that this is a bit of a freak situation rather than a complete failure of the system. It's a bad day but not a complete disaster."

Bud Collins, the legendary American commentator, called yesterday "an extraordinary and shocking set of events", before adding that "this has also been an extraordinary Wimbledon". Collins seconded Shriver's view that these poor results owe more to fate than failure. "Who would have thought that Agassi would go out before the second day, let alone the second week," he said.

Morrison, who was matching the 18th seed, Sjeng Schalken, until his game collapsed in the third set, expressed disappointment for American tennis but personal joy at his Wimbledon showing. "It's unfortunate what's happened to the Americans this week," he said after his 6-4 7-6 6-0 defeat, "but I'm happy on a personal level. To be honest, I didn't even know I was the last one here until someone told me this morning. This has been the best week of my tennis career by a long way and I'm just delighted to have made it this far. Now I just have to build on these results and make sure that I'm ready for the US Open in August."

Morrison lost the first set after he was broken in the ninth game, and then held three set points in second set tie-break. However, from 6-3 up, he lost the next four points and eventually surrendered the set. "I think I probably could have played those three points better," the 23-year-old admitted. "But you've also got to give Sjeng credit for the way he mixed his shots." As to the $60,000 question whether there is anything wrong with men's tennis in America, Morrison had this message: "There's a great bunch of young guys on verge of cracking it, but people need to be patient. We're getting there."

So, too, is Mikhail Youzhny. The 20-year-old Russian is proving to be one of the major surprises of the tournament, after he followed his defeat of the 24th seed Gaston Gaudio with a very impressive display against the much-fancied Frenchman, Nicolas Escudé. His 6-2 1-6 6-3 6-3 win sets up the intriguing prospect of a fourth- round tie with No 1 seed Lleyton Hewitt.