With four out of 10 women in the top ten of the WTA Tour, Russia is a country to be reckoned with. Leaving Serena Williams to hold it down by herself, the US can do and should do more.

On the ATP side we have Andy Roddick with the killer serve and the wit of James Blake to keep the US in the spotlight. But you can't mention the men's tour without the likes of Roger Federer and Raphael Nadal. These two players have taken tennis to another level or two, or three - heck, maybe even four!

Let's go back to  the late 70s through the 80s, when we had John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Jimmy Connors, Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King who amassed many majors in singles and doubles. The backbone of US tennis was shaped and sustained during this era.

Connors is the only player to win the US Open on three surfaces, grass at Forest Hills in 1974, clay at Forest Hills in 1976, and hard-court in 1978 at Flushing Meadows. Chris Evert and Navratilova won 18 Grand Slam titles, and the two battling each other so many times in the finals kept US tennis at the forefront.

Now don't get me wrong, we have the Williams sisters for a few more years to add to the history books. There's the promising left-hander Donald Young, who won the Junior Wimbledon and Australian Open, Meghann Shaughnessy and Meilen Tu in the top 50 on the WTA side.

Russia and China take tennis very seriously; they have many, many tennis centres where kids start to play when they start to walk. Yes, we have the Nick Bollettieri Center, where Maria Sharapova and Tatiana Golovin were trained but represent other countries in tournaments. We have Oscar Wagner in Florida, who has trained many South American players (it was said that his methods were taught to the Williams sisters by their dad Richard).