As darkness fell on SW19 and the temperature dropped into the 50s and threw a cold chill into US men's tennis, the United States reached a new low at Wimbledon.

For the first time in modern history, there is only one American man in the third round - Bobby Reynolds of Acworth, Georgia.

Twice the US had as few as two players in the third round, in 1998 - Pete Sampras, who won the tournament, and Todd Martin. And again in 2007, when Blake and Roddick were the last standing.

Blake, seeded ninth, was taken down 6-3, 6-7, (8) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 by the veteran Rainer Schuettler, who had won only four of 13 matches coming to Wimbledon. And Andy Roddick lost 6-7, 7-5, 6-4, 7-6, his worst showing at Wimbledon in eight years.

Twelve Americans started lout in the men's draw, two coming out of qualifying, but only Roddick was considered a threat to win here, and he would have had to have some luck. He can fault only himself for this loss. He had three sets points to knot the match at two sets apiece and couldn't convert.

The first two came with Janko Tipsarevic serving on 4-5. At 15-40, Roddick mishit a backhand return then landed well wide. At 30-40, on a 90 mph second serve, he inexplicably tried to tap the ball back, flat-footed at the baseline.

Then, two games later, Roddick had a third set point at 30-40, but Tipsarevic surprised him by playing a serve-and-volley point and Roddick's backhand return was wide. Tipsarevic won the game to force a tiebreak and, from 4-4, he won the final three points, winning the match with a service winner down the T.

For those who don't know the Serb too well, it was last January in Melbourne that Tipsarevic showed the world just what a fine player he is by outplaying Roger Federer for much of their third round match at the Australian Open in a classic duel that seemed to go on forever and finished 10-8 in the fifth to a very relieved Swiss.

Out on Court 3, on a windy afternoon, Blake was no better. He must have felt his match against the almost forgotten German Schuettler was but a stepping stone to round three. Schuettler, the 2003 Australian Open finalist whose ranking fell like a stone little more than a year later, has never got past the round of 16 at Wimbledon and should have been there for the taking for Blake. 

But the eighth-ranked player in the world lost his grip on the match after winning a comfortable first set and, despite fighting back to take the third, was never really in control again as the 32-year-old German scampered about court, driving double fisted backhands deep into the American defences. In the end, Blake was just not secure enough off the ground and a flurry of errors helped Schuettler through to a 3 hour 19 minute victory.

The bottom line is that American tennis will never be what it was 18 years ago when Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Jim Courier and Michael Chang were around. These were the golden years of American tennis, but let's face it, the odds of seeing another American winning a Grand Slam over the next two years seem unlikely.

Who could beat Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal today? Not many, and it looks like the chances of seeing Roddick beating both of them at a Slam would be a miracle. I believe in miracles. If he has a lucky draw and plays the way he did last March he might do that. Until then, forget about seeing any American winning a major!