Where did tennis go? You know that sport, where two people stand on opposite sides of a marked court hitting balls at each other across a net.

As I remember, it was a fun game, one that was made even better with professional tennis players who had character, personality and flair

It was even fun to watch it on television with such luminous personalities as Jimmy Conners, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Arthur Ashe, Mats Wilander, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker, Andre Agassi, Ilie Nastase (one of the great names and a great tennis personality), Vitas Gerulaitis (another of the great names in sports), Roscoe Tanner, Ivan Lendl and even Pete Sampras.

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And on the women’s side the names and personalities were just as luminous: Chris Evert, Billie Jean King, Margaret Court, Martina Navratilova, Gabriella Sabatini, Tracy Austin, Steffi Graf, Arantxa Sanchez-Vacario, and others.

That’s when tennis was fun to watch, fun to play.

But for the last decade or so, I’ve wondered what happened to that game. It seemed to disappear.

For me, that question has been simmering on the back burner for the past year and came to the forefront at the recent U.S. Open.

Instead of great tennis played by interesting personalities, we’ve got Serena Williams showing that it was all about her, Roger Federer crying because he didn’t get his precious record of most grand slams won, and too much made of 17-year old Melanie Oudin who is being pumped as the next great American tennis great. That line starts to the left, but be careful, there are numerous other “greats” in that line who didn’t quite fit the title.

And outside of Federer and Rafael Nadal on the men’s side and Venus and Serena Williams and a couple of Russians with unpronounceable names on the women’s side, can anyone really tell who the top tennis players are anymore, much less know about their personalities that makes the game interesting and fun to watch.

That’s the main problem with tennis now, the lack of identifiable players and personalities that want to make us watch.

And the ones who do stand out, do so for the wrong reasons: failed drug tests, gambling or just being a spoiled brat who yells until they get their way.

It’s the same problem with golf. If Tiger Woods isn’t playing, does anybody really want to watch a golf tournament?

But in today’s world, with sponsorships the rule, nobody wants to stand out for risk of losing it all.

Frankly, it’s boring. Wake me when the next “great” comes on the scene.

NEAL MCCLELLAND is assistant sports editor of The Daily Iberian.