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I have some opinions about the remarks made by ESPN broadcaster a well-known announcer following Novak Djokovic's win over Taylor Fritz in the US Open quarter-finals. Look – Fritz is the United States, Fowler is from the US – and sports often encourage patriotic sentiment. A little bit of disappointment was appropriate. Instead, he invoked the ongoing absence of US male players at grand slam tournaments: none of them had lifted a trophy since Andy Roddick in 2003, and he had been the final representative in the tournament.

Everyone love a narrative, me too. But really. Even if the American had beaten Djokovic for the initial occasion, phenomenal talent the Spanish star was looming in the next round, who he has never defeated in an competitive encounter. And if he’d somehow survived that, it would have been defending champion Jannik Sinner, versus him the American had dropped 10 of the previous eleven sets. The two young stars had also divided the last seven grand slams (and Alcaraz went on to defeat a tired Serbian in the subsequent match). Fritz said in press after the loss that he actually liked his path, because it presented the chance to defeat the top three competitors in the world in succession. Fritz is more than within his right to aspire to the accomplishment; an competitor is supposed to believe in themselves. But going into that Djokovic quarter-final who else sensibly had the lack of American champions on the brain?

The American star's second serve the sole barrier standing in her way and sustained success

Fritz, twenty-eight, is ranked number four in the global rankings starting the upcoming year-end championships and has secured his last six encounters over No 3 Alexander Zverev with increasing ease. It's likely he might claim that position for himself in the future. But it’s clear that at present, that’s as high as he can climb: The Italian and Spaniard lie a chasm of ranking points away. Fritz’s top-class serve and concussive strength on both front side and backhand are more than enough to defeat the majority of rivals on the ATP tour. When facing the select few once-in-a-lifetime players, however, he is frequently overmatched. The last several seasons has witnessed the interesting emergence of tall, gangly athletes who can nevertheless cover the court with the surprising quickness and fluidity of smaller players. Fritz is six-foot-five and looks it. His footwork is rigid, as if he’s still getting used to his legs. So he’ll rarely win a rally that the opponent was controlling, and playing a drop shot versus him is typically a reliable tactic. That serves as a quite harsh limitation on his upside.

The American has achieved a number of significant, improbable advancements over the years. At the beginning of the ten-year period, he was hovering around the lower end of the world's best thirty. Two years after, he was approaching the elite ten. Last year, he suddenly surged to No 4 – and held the spot. But the next leap, competing against and defeating legendary figures like the young Spaniard, the Italian, and even a declining Djokovic, is the toughest of all. What could the commentator have been thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a legitimate contender to defeat them all back-to-back? That it was appropriate mentioning the continuing drought of US male players lifting major titles when Fritz had departed the New York major in the quarter-finals? The desperation is just too much and the respect for the difficulty of the challenge too little.

Taylor Fritz achieved a personal best advancement to the Wimbledon semi-finals in the summer.

Fritz’s performance in that exact last eight match ought to have been enough of an indication. The Serbian triumphed in four rounds, a victory that only seemed uncertain for brief periods towards the conclusion, when the American had survived a few championship opportunities and had a chance to maintain serve for 5-5. The duo looked well-balanced during the exchanges, with the American earning plenty of chances to win the opponent's serve. But Djokovic saved break point after break point, extending the run to the point of agony. When Fritz finally did convert a single of the chances at 5-5 in the second set, he immediately produced a terrible game to lose his own serve again; the Serbian had lulled him into a skirmish peripheral to the main contest and forced him to use excessive effort to prevail. Down set points in the final game, Fritz’s first serve sailed to heaven. He prolonged the contest twice on his second serve, but ultimately committed two errors. It was not a collapse, I didn’t think, only a consequence of needing to hit too many weaker deliveries.

The contest was quite ironclad evidence that Fritz is insufficiently skilled to beat any form of the Serbian, who lost to the Spaniard in the next round and did not particularly seem like he thought he could triumph. This is perfectly acceptable – the Serbian is the greatest of all time, and might not be at the height of his athletic abilities anymore, but has acquired enough experience and tactical know-how to compensate for a significant portion of the decline. The issue is the individuals who were expecting the American to win, and putting pressure on him to do so, when he was yet to accomplished anything that suggested he could.

The American is an asset to the tour regardless. He’s a patient, thoughtful voice in press conferences, more so than almost anyone on the men's tour aside from Daniil Medvedev, willing to not just express his emotions or the tactic he believed determined a contest, but clarify it. That he ought to shoulder the majority of the responsibility for America failing to spawn a male major champion since the last American titlist seems unjust. (Now that the fellow American is rubbing shoulders with him in the standings, perhaps they can share that load.)

ATP Finals: Player Divisions

Jimmy Connors Group

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

Bjorn Borg Division

• The Italian champion
• The German powerhouse
• Ben Shelton (US)
• Félix Auger-Aliassime (Can)

“I’d probably dwell on it indefinitely if I fail to accomplish it,” Fritz informed an interviewer in June of claiming a major. It is hoped he realizes that he’s not a failure if he does not fulfill that objective, that overcoming Alcaraz and Sinner’s young, terrifying reign is actually highly improbable for all other players. {