Hell be lucky to last five or six years on those knees. What it might have to come down to is playing less on hard surfaces and playing more on forgiving surfaces.

I'm not suggesting that the entire nation can't be successful, but there's something to it when you have 150 cable channels and the Internet at your fingertips and video games and all kinds of ADD-addled devices like my iPhone and your BlackBerry and things that keep us busy.

Getting to number one in the world without a coach is highly unlikely.

Even the poor can be fat in the U.S. That says something about a country. That's how incredible what we have is. But it can also take away incentive.

I am there to play tennis and represent the U.S., but I'm also aware that not everyone's going to be able to think that way.

What separates the winners from the losers is that they can deal with doing their best while still coming up short.

There's plenty of anecdotal evidence that most champions are born into certain environments and encouraged early. Then, later on, they might get some assistance from their federations.