During the holidays, while you were adding a few pounds feasting at family gatherings and watching football, the very best American male tennis players were working hard to ramp up their games.
John Isner, with an eye on improving his backhand, focused on some very specific footwork and staying aggressive in critical situations. Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan practiced in Florida to perfect a few specialty shots. Steve Johnson spent a lot of time in the gym and on the track in his quest to get stronger and faster.
Isner, who is the top-ranked U.S. man at No. 18, finished the 2014 season among the ATP World Tour's top 20 for the fifth straight year. As the 6-foot-11 Tampa, Florida, resident said in a recent email from Perth, Australia, "that isn't too bad." Still, he believes he can be better.
"It's simply going to take more consistency," Isner wrote. "Having three really good tournaments isn't good enough. This is extremely difficult as the game is so deep now.
"But it's attainable."
While Isner briefly cracked the top 10 in 2012 after reaching his first ATP masters final, it's been three years since an American male (Mardy Fish) finished in the year-end top 10. And, since Andy Roddick won the 2003 US Open, American men have gone an astonishing 0-for-44 in Grand Slams.
There was a time -- in the late 1970s and early '80s -- when you could find six or seven Americans in the top 10, but today's game has gone global. It's the same trend the United States is experiencing in the area of goods and services; China recently passed America as the world's largest economy, and Europeans dominate the sport Americans and Australians owned 30, 40, 50 years ago.
Today's top 10 includes two Swiss players (Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka), a Japanese athlete (Kei Nishikori) and a Canadian (Milos Raonic).
"We're not a playoff team," ESPN analyst Brad Gilbert, who won a few Super Bowls coaching Andre Agassi, said of the U.S. men. "We're not in the top 10, we're not making the semifinals at the majors. We've had such a long history, and this is probably the longest [Grand Slam] drought we've had."
There is some good news, though. Two of the players who jumped the furthest in the ATP rankings since the start of last season were Americans. Steve Johnson, 25, was No. 157 at the start of the 2014 season. Now he's sitting at No. 37, an improvement of 120 spots. Jack Sock, the 22-year-old Nebraskan, went to No. 42 from No. 104, a leap of 62 spots.
Heading into the Australian Open, which begins Monday, here's a snapshot of America's four highest-ranked men.
John Isner, No. 18: The biggest change is at coach. Gone is former ATP professional Mike Sell, replaced by former ATP pro and current broadcaster Justin Gimelstob.
You know the deal here: The strapping Isner has one of the best serves on the planet. He had 989 aces last year, No. 3 among ATP players, behind only Ivo Karlovic and Milos Raonic. His winning percentage in tiebreakers (.656) was fourth overall. He's 243-152 for his career and won nine titles and more than $7 million. Hard to believe, but Isner turns 30 in August.
Gimelstob's mission is to help Isner crank up that backhand and find a way to break the top players more consistently.
"Return of serve -- everything starts and ends with that thought," Gilbert said of Isner's game. "If you can't break guys, you won't be in upper echelon of the game. John needs to get better in his return game. That makes everything else easier."
Sam Querrey, No. 35: He seemed oddly out of sorts last year, but finished with a 28-21 record. Querrey, 27, created some momentum last fall for 2015 by playing three Challengers tournaments (Napa, Sacramento, Tiburon). He won all three titles and went 15-0 in the process.
His ranking was up from the 2013 year-end No. 46, but well short of his career high of No. 18 in 2010, the year he made the fourth round at Wimbledon and the US Open, a feat he hasn't equaled at a major in the four years since. Querrey's best efforts in 2014 were reaching the semifinals at Eastbourne and Winston-Salem, both ATP 250 events.
Steve Johnson, No. 37: It was a terrific year for the former USC star. Not only did he raise his ranking dramatically, he won half a million dollars and scored three wins over top-15 players: Ernests Gulbis (Cincinnati), Isner (D.C.) and Tommy Haas (Delray Beach).
"I worked a ton in the offseason on getting my backhand stronger and becoming more aggressive and trying to impose my game on the match a little more," Johnson wrote from Brisbane, where he lost to Kei Nishikori in the second round. "Really tried to improve my return of serve and being more aggressive when it's the right time to attack.
"I improved a ton from a mental standpoint in 2014. I went from taking the losses extremely hard and hit the confidence hard to taking the losses as an opportunity to be practical and learn from the losses and find a way to turn them into positives. That was the biggest difference."
Johnson has established himself as a credible professional.
"Would love to start making a push for second weeks of slams and contending for titles on the ATP tour," he concluded. "Haven't set a ranking goal for year's end, but would love to just continue to grow my game for the long career I would like to have."
Jack Sock, No. 42: Sock is the only one of the top four absent in Australia. After undergoing hip surgery in the offseason, Sock is hoping to return next month in Memphis. This is usually serious stuff; while Milos Ranoic and Lleyton Hewitt (to name a few) returned to the game after hip repairs, Gustavo Kuerten and Magnus Norman struggled.
Sock has a terrific forehand and plays aggressively. He was a formidable 27-20 in 2014, reached the third round at Roland Garros and beat Nishikori in Shanghai.