U.S. Tennis Is Model of Global Marketing

Image isn’t everything, as Andre Agassi eventually discovered, to his lasting benefit and ours. However, image can be enlightening, especially in the case of the U.S. Tennis Assn. and the organization’s “It’s Showtime” ad campaign for the U.S. Open.

“Beaming out from a deep-blue background are six very cool-looking tennis stars in various Hollywood-meets-Fifth Avenue poses,” Gerard Baker of the Times of London writes of the ad.

“Instantly recognizable, to most Americans, are the happy faces of Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and Venus Williams. Alongside them, as if to make up the numbers, are the figures of Roger Federer, Kim Clijsters and Maria Sharapova.

“As a marketing tool for casual American fans of the game it is brilliant. In tennis terms it is, of course, a bit of a fraud.

“None of the American stars depicted in this tableau of top tennis is in the first eight in the ATP or the WTA world rankings. Indeed, there’s only one American among those 16 best male and female players in the world -- James Blake, presumably deemed unrecognizable by the USTA’s marketers.”

Trivia time: In 2004, no American man or woman won a championship at any of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, a mark the U.S. could equal this year.

Before 2004, when was the last year Americans failed to win a title at any of the Grand Slams?

Swiss tanks? The usually easygoing Federer was rankled by CBS commentator Mary Carillo’s recent assertion that she believed Federer played at less than full intensity during a second-round loss to Andy Murray on Aug. 16 in Cincinnati.

“He wasn’t trying to beat Andy Murray that day,” Carillo said during a conference call last week. “He went there because he had to, and he played as though he went there because he had to.”

Asked about Carillo’s comments, Federer told the Associated Press, “Because I lose, I tanked? ... That’s absurd. I think what she said is a joke. I don’t take it seriously.”

Sweet! During the same conference call, Carillo said she gets a chuckle out of watching Murray, the Scottish teenager seeded 17th at the U.S. Open, play.

“I think he’s comical out there,” she said. “The way he mopes around, he looks like Napoleon Dynamite. Every time I see him, I feel like voting for Pedro.”

Trivia answer: In 1988, Steffi Graf swept all four women’s Grand Slam titles and Mats Wilander took three of the men’s championships. Stefan Edberg won the men’s Wimbledon title that year.

And finally: You know times for American tennis are tough when Lexus feels the need to take out a full-page color ad in USA Today to acknowledge Roddick’s much-delayed first tournament victory of the year, last week in Cincinnati.

“Doubters were silenced,” reads the ad alongside a photo of an amped Roddick pumping his fist. “Congratulations Andy on your victory in Cincinnati. See you at the Open.”

What next? Congratulations Andy on your changeover -- you didn’t slip or trip or spill the Gatorade once.