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I have some thoughts regarding the comments delivered by the sports network broadcaster a well-known announcer following Novak Djokovic's victory over the American player in the US Open quarter-finals. Look – Fritz is the United States, Fowler is American – and sports frequently encourage nationalism. Some letdown was understandable. Instead, Fowler brought up the ongoing absence of US male players at the majors: not one of them has won a trophy since Andy Roddick in 2003, and he had been the last one standing in the tournament.

Everyone love a storyline, myself included. But really. Suppose Fritz had beaten Djokovic for the initial occasion, phenomenal talent the Spanish star was looming in the following match, whom he has never defeated in an official match. And if he’d somehow survived that, it would have been defending champion the Italian, against whom the American had dropped 10 of the previous eleven sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also divided the last seven major titles (and Alcaraz went on to defeat a fatigued Serbian in the next round). Fritz stated in post-match interviews following his defeat that he actually liked his draw, because it offered the chance to defeat the top three competitors in the sport in succession. Fritz is well justified to aim for the achievement; an athlete is meant to have faith in themselves. But going into that Serbian last eight match what other person sensibly had the drought of US winners in mind?

The American star's weaker delivery the only thing between her and sustained success

Fritz, 28, is ranked number four in the world starting this week’s ATP World Tour Finals and has secured his previous six matches over third-ranked Alexander Zverev with increasing ease. Presumably he could claim that position for himself in the coming years. But evidently that at present, that is as far as he can climb: Sinner and Alcaraz sit a vast gap of ranking points away. His elite delivery and concussive power 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 years has witnessed the interesting rise of lanky, towering athletes who can nonetheless cover the court with the surprising speed and fluidity of much shorter men. Fritz is six-foot-five and appears that way. His movement is rigid, as if he hasn't fully adapted to his limbs. So he seldom win a rally that the other player was controlling, and hitting a soft shot versus him is usually a safe bet. That acts as a quite severe restriction on his upside.

Fritz has achieved a several dramatic, unexpected advancements over the years. At the beginning of the decade, he was hovering around the bottom of the world's best thirty. 24 months after, he was sniffing the elite ten. Last year, he suddenly exploded up to No 4 – and maintained the spot. But the subsequent step, competing against and beating all-time-greats like the young Spaniard, Sinner, and including a aging Djokovic, is the toughest of all. What was Fowler have been thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a legitimate contender to beat them all back-to-back? That it was worth mentioning the continuing drought of American men winning major titles when Fritz had departed the US Open in the quarter-finals? The desperation is just too much and the appreciation for the difficulty of the challenge insufficient.

The American star made a career-best run to the Wimbledon semi-finals in the summer.

Fritz’s performance in that exact quarter-final should have been sufficient of an sign. Djokovic won in four sets, a victory that only seemed uncertain for brief periods towards the conclusion, when Fritz had survived a couple match points and had a chance to maintain serve for 5-5. The pair looked evenly matched during the rallies, with Fritz creating plenty of chances to break. But the champion rescued service break opportunity after service break opportunity, extending the streak to the brink of agony. When he eventually did convert a single of the chances at 5-5 in the second set, he immediately produced a horrendous service game to lose his own serve once more; the Serbian had drawn him into a battle secondary to the real battle and forced him to use excessive energy to win it. Down set points in the final game, Fritz’s primary delivery sailed to the sky. He extended the match 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 too many second serves.

The contest was fairly ironclad evidence that the American is not good enough to defeat any version of the Serbian, that was defeated by Alcaraz in the next round and never especially seem like he believed he could triumph. This is absolutely fine – Djokovic is the greatest of all time, and might not be at the height of his athletic abilities now, but has acquired enough knowledge and strategic intelligence to compensate for a significant portion of the drop-off. The issue is those who were expecting Fritz to win, and putting pressure on him to do so, when he was had not done anything that suggested he could.

Fritz is an asset to the circuit regardless. He’s a calm, reflective voice in media sessions, exceeding virtually everyone on the men's tour except for Daniil Medvedev, prepared to not just express how he feels or the tactic he believed determined a contest, but clarify it. That he ought to bear the brunt of the blame for America not spawn a men's grand slam winner since the last American titlist seems unfair. (Now that Ben Shelton is competing alongside him in the rankings, perhaps they can share that burden.)

ATP Finals: Singles Groups

Jimmy Connors Group

• Carlos Alcaraz (Sp)
• Taylor Fritz (US)
• The Australian speedster
• Lorenzo Musetti (It)

Swedish icon Group

• The Italian champion
• Alexander Zverev (Ger)
• Ben Shelton (US)
• Félix Auger-Aliassime (Can)

“I’d probably think about it indefinitely if I don’t accomplish it,” Fritz told a journalist in the summer of winning a grand slam. I hope he realizes that he’s not a failure if he does not achieve that goal, that overcoming Alcaraz and Sinner’s dominant, formidable empire is in fact extremely unlikely for everybody else. {