Clay the cure to U.S. tennis malaise say McEnroe

NEW YORK (Reuters) - American tennis players have often approached clay with the same fear in which Superman viewed Kryptonite, but U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe believes the surface is the key to unearthing the next American champion.

"If you develop players more on clay...they will become better all court players, even ...better fast court players," McEnroe said during a conference call Tuesday.

"The way the game has changed with the technology, the rackets, the strings, the athleticism and the speed you have to learn how to build the point and play with spin, play with angle, take the ball early. You basically have to do it all.

"We're not teaching our players to be clay courters. We're not going to change into a clay court nation anytime soon.

"But we certainly feel it is a huge part of the developmental process for kids to become all-round players."

Mired in a Grand Slam dry spell, the last grand slam singles title won by an American man was the 2003 U.S. Open victory by Andy Roddick, the country is unlikely to see their drought end in Paris when the French Open starts later this month.

It has been a decade since Andre Agassi triumphed at Roland Garros and nearly two decades since Jim Courier won back-to-back titles in 1991-92.

While McEnroe would like to see younger players embrace more of the clay court game he acknowledges it comes at the expense of the attacking, aggressive style favoured by Americans on the lightning quick hardcourts.

"Most of our great American players are attacking players, we don't want to take that away as our mentality," said McEnroe.