The United States has reached another moment of truth at a Grand Slam

“Why do we stink?” That’s the first question an aunt of mine asks me, like clockwork, at every family reunion. It usually comes immediately after, “How are you?” Sometimes the two questions are combined. “How are you, why do we stink?”

As a fellow tennis fan, and someone who knows what I do for a living, she doesn’t need to explain who the “we” is, or what we’re terrible at. It’s our countrymen and women. Why aren’t Americans good at tennis anymore?

She’s not the only one who wonders this, of course. I hear it from members of my tennis club, from pundits on ESPN, from my barber. The answer they all seem to want to hear is some version of, “We’ve gone soft.”

Once upon a time, I used to mumble half-hearted agreement to this assertion, just to get the conversation over. More recently, as the number of U.S. players in the Top 100 has skyrocketed, as Coco Gauff won her first major, as Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe cracked the Top 10, I’ve stopped mumbling. Now I respond with a crisp comeback that never fails to startle: “U.S. tennis is actually good again.”

The latest proof can be found in the draw sheets at the Australian Open. As I write this, there are 10 Americans left in the men’s and women’s fields, out of 48 players total, the most of any country. The names you already know are there: Gauff, Fritz, Paul, Shelton, Keys, Collins. The names you’re getting to know are there: Emma Navarro, Alex Michelsen, Learner Tien. And then there’s Marcos Giron, an overachiever who may always live under the radar.

The 19-year-old Tien’s epic, exceptionally mature, 3:00 A.M. win over No. 5 seed Daniil Medvedev shows that the pipeline to the pros that the USTA has helped build over the past 15 years has yet to run dry. (Watch his great and possibly delirous post-match interview above.)

In truth, U.S. tennis was never as bad as the doubters believed. It’s just that the success in this century has come almost exclusively on the women’s side, where Venus and Serena Williams combined to win 30 singles majors and 14 together in doubles. When casual fans and pundits ask why we’re not good at tennis, what they’re really asking is: Why don’t we have male superstars like McEnroe, Connors, Sampras and Agassi anymore? Even in this traditionally dual-gender sport, “tennis” remains shorthand for the men’s game.

There’s no denying that it has been 21 years since a U.S. man won a Slam. It’s a once-unthinkable dry spell, and one that the skeptics can and will always point to. At this point, though, it’s obscuring all of the good things that are happening.

If you’re a fan of American tennis, you may not have a No. 1 player to get behind, but you do have a varied assortment of personalities and styles to follow at every event. This is a country and a system that can produce players as contrasting as Tien and Collins, Shelton and Navarro. There should be at least one player out there for everyone. It would be nice to believe that pundits and casual fans will ever see it this way, but I’m not holding my breath.

All of which means that the U.S. has reached another moment of truth at a Slam. The pattern at the majors in recent years has been for American players to fill up the brackets, and pull off promising wins, in the early rounds. Then, as week one turns to week two, the losses begin to mount, the field of U.S. players narrows rapidly, and maybe one is still standing in the semis. That mass-casualty event may already be starting to play out. I had an unfortunate sense of déja vu on Friday as I watched No. 7 seed Jessica Pegula get outplayed and out-fought by 55th-ranked Olga Danilovic in their third-round encounter.

For now, let’s focus on the positive. There’s a lot to watch, and a lot to like about the U.S. players in Australia. Whether or not Michelsen and Tien continue to advance at this event, they both look like guys who belong. Whether or not Fritz can beat Sinner, or Paul can beat Zverev in the coming days—should those match-ups materialize—they’ve turned themselves into consistent contenders. The same is true for Gauff, whether or not she can knock off Sabalenka in the semis. Shelton has spirit and a smile and a rocket for a serve, Keys can still batter the ball like no else, Giron is all about the grind, and Collins…well…you kinda want to see who she yells at next, don’t you?

It’s about the journey, not the destination, right? As a fan, it’s about sticking with your team through thick and thin, not just showing up when the champagne bottle are uncorked. American fans won’t be satisfied until a man wins a major title. But whether that happens any time soon or not, their country is good at tennis again.