Serbia vs. Scotland for Australian Open as USA/Australian Drought Continues

John Isner’s 18-week run in the Top 10 gave hope for the first Men’s Grand Slam since Andy Roddick in 2003. Bernard Tomic’s shocking upset of top-ranked Novak Djokovic early this month gave host Australians hope of their first Slam since Lleyton Hewitt won Wimbleton in 2002. Instead two countries that won ZERO titles from 1936 to 2003 while the US and Australia were winning 90 and 75 square off again.

Serbia had never won a Grand Slam in the history of tennis until Djokovic broke through just two years ago. If he wins Sunday night, it will make five of the last nine Grand Slams for him. While there is not a single American man in the top 10, Serbia also has the No. 9 player in Janko Tipsarevic and the 37th best player in Viktor Troicki.

Djokovic is the No. 1 and favorite Sunday after barely breaking a sweat in the semis.

Andy Murray finally defeated Roger Federer in a Grand Slam tournament to get the chance to face Djokovic. In last year’s US Open, Murray won the US Open to break a drought for Great Britain that went back to 1936, when Fred Perry took Wimbleton and the US Open.

The magnitude of the fall of the USA and Australia can only be shown by the fact that from the time of Perry’s Championships, the two countries had 65 and 50 more Men’s Grand Slams than the third place country, Sweden:

Men’s Grand Slams between UK wins

1. USA 90 (none since 2003)

2. Australia 75

3. Sweden 25

4. Spain 21

5. Switzerland 17

6. Czech Republic 10

7. Germany 8

8. Argentina 5

9 (tie) France 4

9 (tie) Serbia 4 (all Djokovic last 2 years)

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