Last week on the ATP World Tour was not one to write home about for American tennis players. As the 2014 season kicked off, no one made it past the second round of a tournament.

Still, there is reason to believe a reversal of recent fortune could be in the cards.

From Donald Young winning two Challenger events in a row to Steve Johnson capturing the Australian Open Wildcard Playoff Event last weekend, the months after the U. S. Open were successful ones for American male tennis players.

“Successful” and “American male tennis players” weren’t phrases that exactly fit together for the majority of 2013.

For one, there was the first week since the institution of the rankings that no players from the U. S. were in the top 20. John Isner was the only man to win a singles title over the course of the year at the main level. Then there was the dubious distinction of no American male reaching at least the third round of Wimbledon for the first time in more than 100 years.

But what might have really been a low point was no one reaching the round of 16 at their “home” major, the U. S. Open, for the first time in the history of the tournament. And not just in the Open Era—ever. As in going back to the 1800s ever.

However, there were some signs at the Open that things could start to turn around.  For one, the oft-critiqued Young qualified for the tournament and won a round. Tim Smyczek was actually the last American man standing, losing a tough five-setter in the third round. The fates of those two were intertwined through the fall as Young beat Smyczek in consecutive weeks on the way to two Challenger titles before the tables were turned at the tournament in Tiburon, California. And, while Smyczek didn’t win that tournament, he did capture a Challenger title in Knoxville, Tennessee a few weeks later.

The Challengers, casually referred to as the “minor leagues” in pro tennis, were a hotbed of success for other American men as well. Not only did Young and Smyczek win events, but Bradley Klahn, the veteran Michael Russell and the aptly named Tennys Sandgren did as well.

Their play over the fall helped Young, Smyczek and Russell clinch main-draw spots in the 2014 Australian Open, which is right around the corner. Their countryman Steve Johnson, a two-time NCAA champion while at USC, earned his berth by winning the USTA’s wildcard tournament, a single-elimination eight-man draw.

The playoff exemplifies what could be considered the most effective way to raise the prospects of the next generation:  creating a dog-eat-dog atmosphere among the players. Seeing one of their peers do something with a positive result leads to more inspired efforts. It worked to the tune of Hall-of-Fame berths for Sampras, Agassi, Michael Chang and Jim Courier, as well as—to an extent—for Andy Roddick, James Blake and Mardy Fish.

While Young and Smyczek—along with Jack Sock, Ryan Harrison and others—will be hard-pressed to come near the results of those former top-10 men, the end of 2014 could see upward of eight to 10 Americans in the top 50, with some of those less-than-stellar marks made the year prior erased from memory.

It’s a tall order, but if the end of 2013 is any indication, it’s one that can be pulled off.