For decades American universities did something unusual. They took young people who were not yet good enough and spent years making them better, and out of that came Olympians, national team members, coaches.

On Sunday afternoon, I watched Ben Shelton play for the US Open title. He had beaten Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals in a match that ended at 3:33 in the morning, and in the final he took the third set off the top seed before it got away from him.