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I have a few thoughts regarding the comments made by ESPN broadcaster a well-known announcer after the Serbian champion's victory over Taylor Fritz during the US Open quarter-finals. Look – Fritz is the United States, the commentator is from the US – and sports frequently encourage patriotic sentiment. A little bit of letdown was understandable. Rather, he invoked the continued absence of US male players at the majors: none of them had lifted a title since the last American champion in 2003, and Fritz had been the last one standing in the competition.

Everyone enjoy a narrative, me too. But really. Even if Fritz defeated the legend for the first time, phenomenal talent Carlos Alcaraz was looming in the next round, who Fritz has never defeated in an official match. And if he’d someway gotten past that, it would have been title holder the Italian, versus him the American had dropped 10 of the last 11 sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also split the previous seven grand slams (plus the Spaniard proceeded to thrash a tired Djokovic in the next round). He said in press after the loss that he in fact liked his draw, because it offered the opportunity to beat the top three players in the sport in succession. He is well within his right to aspire to the accomplishment; an competitor is meant to believe in themselves. But going into that Djokovic quarter-final what other person in their right mind had the lack of US winners on the brain?

The American star's weaker delivery the sole barrier standing in her way and sustained success

The American, twenty-eight, is ranked fourth in the global rankings starting this week’s year-end championships and has won his last six encounters over third-ranked the German with increasing ease. It's likely he might claim that position for himself in the future. But evidently that at present, that is as high as he can climb: The Italian and Spaniard sit a chasm of ranking points away. Fritz’s top-class serve and powerful strength on each front side and reverse side are sufficiently adequate to defeat most opponents on the ATP tour. Against the handful of once-in-a-lifetime players, though, he is often overmatched. The past few seasons has seen the curious emergence of tall, gangly athletes who can nevertheless cover the court with the alarming speed and fluidity of much shorter players. Fritz is six-foot-five and appears that way. His movement is stiff, as if he hasn't fully adapted to his legs. So he’ll rarely steal a point that the opponent was dictating, and playing a drop shot against him is typically a safe bet. That acts as a pretty severe restriction on his upside.

Fritz has achieved a number of significant, improbable improvements over the years. At the beginning of the decade, he was hovering around the lower end of the top 30. 24 months after, he was approaching the elite ten. Last year, he suddenly exploded up to No 4 – and maintained the spot. But the next leap, mixing it up with and defeating legendary figures like the young Spaniard, Sinner, and including a aging Djokovic, is the toughest of all. What could Fowler thinking? That Fritz, in 2025, was a serious threat to defeat them all back-to-back? That it was worth commenting on the ongoing drought of American men winning grand slams when he had exited the US Open in the quarter-finals? The desperation is just excessive and the appreciation for the difficulty of the task too little.

Taylor Fritz made a personal best advancement to the Wimbledon last four in the summer.

Fritz’s performance in that very last eight match ought to have been enough of an indication. Djokovic won in four sets, a victory that only felt uncertain for moments towards the very end, when Fritz had survived a couple championship opportunities and had a chance to hold for 5-5. The duo appeared well-balanced during the exchanges, with Fritz earning numerous chances to win the opponent's serve. But Djokovic rescued service break opportunity after break point, prolonging the run to the point of frustration. When Fritz finally did claim a single of the chances at 5-5 in the second set, he immediately played a terrible service game to drop serve again; the Serbian had drawn him into a battle peripheral to the real battle and compelled him to expend excessive energy to win it. Facing match points in the last game, Fritz’s first serve sailed to heaven. He extended the contest two times on his backup delivery, but finally committed two errors. It was not a choke, in my opinion, just a result of needing to hit an excessive number of weaker deliveries.

The contest was quite ironclad evidence that Fritz is insufficiently skilled to defeat any form of Djokovic, who lost to Alcaraz in the following match and did not especially seem like he believed he could triumph. This is perfectly acceptable – Djokovic is the greatest of all time, and may not be at the peak of his physical powers now, but has acquired sufficient knowledge and strategic intelligence to compensate for quite a bit of the decline. The problem is the individuals who were anticipating the American to win, and pressuring him to achieve that, when he was had not accomplished anything that indicated he would.

The American is an valuable contributor to the circuit regardless. He’s a calm, thoughtful voice in media sessions, more so than almost anyone on the men's tour except for Daniil Medvedev, willing to not only say how he feels or the strategy he believed determined a contest, but clarify it. That he ought to bear the brunt of the responsibility for the United States failing to spawn a male major champion since Andy Roddick seems unfair. (Since the fellow American is rubbing shoulders with him in the rankings, maybe they can divide that load.)

ATP Finals: Singles Groups

American legend Group

• The Spanish phenom
• Taylor Fritz (US)
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• Lorenzo Musetti (It)

Bjorn Borg Group

• The Italian champion
• Alexander Zverev (Ger)
• The rising American
• The Canadian talent

“I’d probably dwell on it indefinitely if I don’t do it,” Fritz told a journalist in June of winning a major. I hope he realizes that he’s not a failure if he doesn’t fulfill that objective, that overcoming Alcaraz and Sinner’s young, terrifying reign is in fact extremely unlikely for all other players. {