Back in April, I wrote a piece for Racquet about American freshmen in Division I tennis. In it, I pointed out that in 2005, roughly seven in ten of them were born in the U.S. It’s now closer to four in ten.
Five months later, the issue is before Congress. On September 14, Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) and Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) announced the TEAM USA Act, which would cap international athletes (anyone not a U.S. national or a green-card holder) at 20 percent of every varsity roster at any school that takes federal student aid.
Patrick McEnroe testified for it at a House subcommittee hearing two days later: "This is collegiate tennis, and we're losing a pathway of dreams and opportunities for American kids," he told Outkick afterwards. "I think of it as the rungs on a ladder. If you keep taking away the rungs, the kids will eventually give up."