Courier And His Powershares Tour

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 16th December 2013

Courier And His Powershares Tour

epa03102265 US team captain Jim Courier reacts after his player Roy Harrison won the first set against Swiss Davis Cup tennis player Michael Lammer during the Davis Cup World Group first round match between Switzerland and the US in the Forum Arena in Fribourg, Switzerland, 12 February 2012. EPA/PETER KLAUNZER |

US Davis Cup captain Jim Courier has been all over the world as a player, coach and TV analyst. He also runs the senior PowerShares Series, which will feature a number of legends playing across the US. including John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl and Michael Chang, who will be playing an upcoming event in Oklahoma City.

Courier says that while tennis is growing at a rapid rate internationally that fan interest has stalled in the United States.

“ Attendance at the Grand Slams is at an all-time high,” he told an Oklahoma TV station. “The demand constantly has grown. The money they’re generating is astronomical. Tennis in the 1970s and early ’80s when I was growing up had a lot of great personalities. It was popular here because America had a lot of high-ranked players. Now it’s a seasoned tour, a global tour. There are very few tournaments in America compared to the way it used to be. It’s fallen off the screen a lot in the United States.”

When Courier was at his peak in the early to mid- 1990s, playing, he, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Michael Chang would pack in fans more than the US women players would, but that’s not the case today. Interestingly, the former No. 1 points to the current WTA No. 1 as the apple of US fans’ eyes.

“Serena Williams is a bigger drawing card on American television than Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal,” he said. “Nowhere else in the world is that true. She brings in the casual sports fan. Americans want to see Americans win. That’s why Americans don’t watch Formula One (racing), one of the most popular sports in the world.”

The US only has one top 20 male in John Isner and has lost a slew of popular former top 10ers over the past year and half like Andy Roddick, James Blake and now apparently Mardy Fish. None of the young American males have made a big splash yet, so it’s tough to sell local players at US events.

“For tennis’ popularity to rise again we need an American male player to capture the nation’s imagination,” he said. “They’ll have to win not one major but multiple majors. I think that will (happen). If they have an engaging personality on social media it would do a lot for the sport in the U.S.”

Considered to be a player intellectual, Courier reads a lot and takes notice of global trends. He also pays very close attention to where his sport is headed and sees pro tennis getting smaller, but better.

“What I mean by that is there will be fewer tournaments, but tournaments will be really big, a lot of men’s and women’s events together,” he said. “If you had 14 to 16 real meaningful events a year, with a lot of TV coverage, it would force players to enter almost every tournament, sort like a NASCAR schedule with fewer races.”

Topics: 10sballs, Andre Agassi, Ivan Lendl, Jim Courier, John Mcenroe, Michael Chang, Pete Sampras, PowerShares, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News, US Davis Cup