Trio of American stars nab national magazine attention

A trio of America's great hopes for glory has received the attention of magazines Esquire and RollingStone.

Jack Sock finds himself featured by *Esquire*, and framed as the forerunner among all up-and-comers and established pros to garner a major singles championship for his home country.

"The goal for the top American isn't the Top 20—it's Top 10, Top 5, No. 1 in the world," Sock says, notably reinforcing the colossal expectations of the Red, White and Blue that have been hoisted on his 24-year-old shoulders – and those of peers John Isner and more – since Andy Roddick retired at the US Open in 2012.

At other times, Sock's conversation with Esquire veers into the territory of Roddick's early-career Reebok Pumps and Backstreet Boys–esque frosted-tips hair, equally affectionately maligned and self-mocked at this past weekend's Tennis Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

But though, like Roddick, Sock hails from Nebraska, he's hardly a corn-shucking huckster; this guy's got dreams, as evidenced by his talk of planning to stay in touch with just a handful of fellow pros after his playing days are over ("Everyone's friendly, but at the end of the day, we're all trying to beat each other").

He's not alone in that.

"You don't go into a job interview thinking you're going to bomb,"says CoCo Vandeweghe, who prides herself on her stubbornness and turned to tennis after a "girls being girls" situation with her youth basketball squad growing up.

She and Frances Tiafoe, 25 and 19 respectively, get the "25 Under 25" treatment in *Rolling Stone*. The spotlights, written by fellow Baseline scribe Andrew Eichenholz, shine on the pairs' coming-of-age stories – what got them to where they are, and what they hope to do moving forward.

"I just want to be great," Tiafoe says in his piece. As well he should, in light of being the youngest player in the ATP World Tour's top 100 at present. Much of his story centers on his Miami encounter on court against Roger Federer in March.

All said and done, catalyzing such glossy fodder and web clicks is one thing. Fans of U.S. tennis are also looking to these three, and more of the country's young guns, to produce results in Queens come September. Given a good draw, each has the talent in spades to do the best kind of damage.

Follow Jon on Twitter @jonscott9.