An All-American Australian Open Quarterfinal: Ben Shelton vs. Tommy Paul

Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul are playing for a spot in the Australian Open semifinals. The United States has waited a long time for something like this.

MELBOURNE, Australia Maybe one day, and sooner rather than later, American men swimming in the deep end of the pool at Grand Slam tennis events will stop being noteworthy.

That is how it was during the first 40 years of the modern era of tennis, which began in 1968. During that era, some combination of players from the United States Ashe, Smith, Connors, McEnroe, Agassi, Chang, Sampras, Courier, Roddick almost always lurked, or even played each other, in the final days of the biggest tournaments.

Those days now feel so long ago, an era that was destined to end after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the spread of wealth to Eastern Europe and the growing popularity and accessibility of a previously inaccessible sport beyond its traditional power centers in the United States, Australia, Britain, France and a few other countries in Western Europe.