Compelling French Open ends with encouraging American triumph

Wrapping up a French Open that was as compelling as it was historic:
• Finally, a significant boost for the USTA development program. Bjorn Fratangelo's title in the boys' singles has a direct connection to a radical new change in American strategy.
Patrick McEnroe, the driving force behind the grooming of junior players, believes clay courts are the answer as a basic instructional venue. Noting the European-paced trend toward patient, defensive players -- as opposed to all-out attackers -- McEnroe spearheaded the movement to install clay courts behind Arthur Ashe Stadium and at the USTA's main training centers in Boca Raton, Fla., and Carson, Calif. "We still want players to be aggressive," he said, "but if you can't hit a lot of balls from the back of the court, it's pretty unlikely you're going to make it to the top."
As it happens, the 17-year-old Fratangelo grew up playing on clay courts in Pittsburgh -- not the red clay we saw at Roland Garros, but the grey Har-Tru clay that serves as the American model. "There's not much difference between the two," Fratangelo said after his 2-6, 6-3, 8-6 victory over Austria's Dominic Thiem in the boys' singles final. "People make too much of that."
Mats Wilander, pointing to Rafael Nadal as the ultimate showcase, believes the USTA is on the right track. "Clay is where you learn to move," he said. "You can't cheat on clay. On hard courts, you inevitably get lazy. There isn't that big of a difference between Mardy Fish and Novak Djokovic in terms of hitting the ball, but Djokovic moves 10 times better."
One hesitates to predict greatness for Fratangelo -- he had never won a junior match at the Grand Slam level before -- but he certainly fits the USTA's contemporary template. He occasionally trains in Boca Raton with Jay Berger, one of America's most prominent developmental coaches, and after winning at Roland Garros, he thanked the USTA "for everything they did."
Berger, on the scene in Paris, predicted that Fratangelo "will be a great player and will climb into the top 50 really fast. This is an important step in his career."
Fratangelo -- who will skip the grass-court season to play Futures events and try to improve his ATP ranking -- was one of six U.S. boys to qualify for the French Open draw. Marcos Giron, out of Thousand Oaks High in Southern California, was the only other player to get past the second round (he lost in the third).