To High Tides From Green Grass

Just like the old Outlaws song, the tennis world is off to "high tides" from the "green grass."

Wimbledon is over. The nets have been taken down on many of the grass courts, and the process of renewing the surface has already begun. The sun is still shining on SW19, but the crowds have left, sending life back to its normal pace.

Unless, of course, you live in Serbia. Novak Djokovic, the 2011 men's champion, returned to Serbia and was greeted with a party the likes of only Goran Ivanisevic has ever seen. It is reported that conservatively 100,000 Serbians piled into the streets of Belgrade to welcome home their new tennis hero. That is essentially the size of the crowds when U2 plays Wembley Stadium, or the crowd at the Super Bowl. Its also almost 2% of the entire population of the Balkan country. That is one heck of a party.

Djokovic's dominant win over Rafael Nadal clearly signaled that 2011 is the year of Djoko. As of today, he stands at 48-1 in matchplay this year, winning all his tournaments but one, and that was his semifinal loss to Roger Federer at the French Open just a month ago. Along the way, he has defeated Nadal a handful of times, Federer twice, Andy Murray, and pretty much every top-five player right now. He has been stellar on every surface. Entering the U.S. summer hard-court season it is hard to see any way that he is not the odds on favorite to win his third major tournament this year, the U.S. Open, in September. If Djoko does, it will be one of the most dominant seasons of a champ on the men's tour in decades.

Djokovic's win cements Serbia as the new tennis power. On the women's side, Jelena Jankovic has held the number one ranking, and she has made the semis of the French Open twice, the Aussie and U.S. Open once, and the U.S. Open final once. Ana Ivanovic has already won the French Open and has been in the finals of the French and Australian and the semis at Wimbledon. Fellow countryman Janko Tipsarevic has been a consistent threat on the ATP World Tour for the past several years and remains above 30 in the rankings.

Just a couple of years ago, this would not be the case. Switzerland, with Federer, and Belgium, with Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin, held the enviable position. Now the dominance has shifted east. It is interesting that tennis dominance in the past decade or so has come from the small countries. The shift began with the Swedes in the 1980s, moved to Germany for a couple of years, Switzerland, and now Serbia. The social dynamics of this are almost as interesting and compelling as the champions that come from those places.

Na Li put China on the map for the first time with her great victory at Roland Garros this year, and it is true that China has only been playing on the world stage for about a decade. It is hard to understand, though, the fact that with a population as large as China's that it has not and does not dominate tennis, and that with the very limited resources most of these smaller states have they now do.

Tennis champions from the former Soviet Republics are not new. Going back to Jaroslav Drobny, a Czech-born, Eqyptian-naturalized Wimbledon and French champion of the 1950s, through Jan Kodes, Ilie Nastase, and of course Martina Navratilova, these small nations had strong tennis roots and programs. The fact that communist governments during the 1950s through the 1980s rarely let their athletes compete outside of the communist block is probably a great reason why more champions did not come from Eastern Europe. After the Wall fell and Russia went from a huge socialist republic to a small nation-state, Russia became a tennis hotbed of talent, lead of course by Anna Kournikova and Marat Safin.

Even the Wimbledon women's final was dominated by Eastern Europe. Petra Kvitova became the fourth Czech to win on the lawns of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet club, convincingly matching Russian-born Maria Sharapova shot for shot in a final full of power and grace. Kvitova's game showed more power and more aggressive play than is normally found from the tennis academy molded women's tour, and signaled that she may be the next to live up to her potential. Kvitova had one of the more difficult draws in the tournament, and her victory over former Wimbledon champ Sharapova was unexpected.

Lost among what was clearly a wonderful tournament is the now clear relegation of the U.S. to a lesser tennis power. Serena and Venus Williams played well, especially given their time away from the game, but it is clear that their dominance is over. Bethanie Mattek-Sands may be the U.S. woman's number one, but that shows just where the game is right now. The usual suspects on the men's side, led now by Mardy Fish and then Andy Roddick, have shown that they don't have the drive or muscle to win the biggest of tournaments. When the lone bright spot are Bob and Mike Bryan, the Bryan Brothers, who again captured another Wimbledon doubles title and continue their rule over the men's doubles world.

In just 45 days, we will get to see who will rise to the top of the U.S. Open championships. Will it be Roddick? The Williams? My money is on someone from a country smaller than the population of New York City.