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I possess a few opinions regarding that remarks made by the sports network broadcaster a well-known announcer following the Serbian champion's win over the American player during the New York major quarter-finals. Consider – the athlete represents the United States, the commentator is from the US – and sports often encourage patriotic sentiment. Some letdown was understandable. Rather, Fowler invoked the continued absence of American men at grand slam tournaments: none of them has won a title since the last American champion in 2003, and Fritz had been the final representative in the competition.

Everyone enjoy a narrative, me too. But come on. Suppose the American had beaten the legend for the initial occasion, phenomenal talent Carlos Alcaraz was waiting in the next round, whom he has yet to beat in an competitive encounter. And had he somehow survived that, it would have been title holder Jannik Sinner, versus him Fritz had dropped 10 of the previous eleven sets. The two young stars had also divided the previous seven grand slams (and the Spaniard went on to defeat a tired Djokovic in the subsequent match). He said in post-match interviews after the loss that he actually liked his path, because it presented the opportunity to defeat the three best competitors in the sport back-to-back. He is well within his right to aspire to the achievement; an athlete is meant to believe in themselves. But going into that Serbian last eight match what other person in their right mind had the drought of American champions on the brain?

Coco Gauff’s weaker delivery the sole barrier between her and sustained success

Fritz, twenty-eight, is placed fourth in the world starting this week’s ATP World Tour Finals and has secured his previous six matches over No 3 the German with growing comfort. Presumably he might claim that position for himself in the future. But evidently that right now, that’s as far as he can rise: The Italian and Spaniard sit a chasm of ranking points away. Fritz’s elite serve and powerful strength on both forehand and backhand are more than enough to defeat most rivals on the professional circuit. Against the handful of generational talents, though, Fritz is often overmatched. The last several seasons has seen the interesting emergence of tall, gangly athletes who can nevertheless move around with the alarming quickness and grace of smaller men. Fritz is six-foot-five and appears that way. His movement is rigid, as if he’s still getting used to his limbs. So he’ll rarely steal a point that the opponent was controlling, and playing a drop shot against him is usually a safe bet. That serves as a pretty severe limitation on his upside.

Fritz has made a number of dramatic, improbable improvements over the years. Early on of the decade, he was circling the lower end of the world's best thirty. 24 months after, he was sniffing the top 10. Last year, he unexpectedly exploded up to fourth place – and held the spot. But the next leap, mixing it up with and beating all-time-greats like the young Spaniard, Sinner, and even a declining Djokovic, is the toughest of all. What was the commentator 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 American men winning major titles when Fritz had departed the US Open in the quarter-finals? The desperation is just excessive and the appreciation for the magnitude of the challenge insufficient.

Taylor Fritz achieved a career-best run to the Wimbledon semi-finals in the summer.

The American's performance in that very quarter-final should have been enough of an sign. Djokovic triumphed in four sets, a victory that only seemed tenuous for moments towards the very end, when the American had saved a couple match points and had a opportunity to maintain serve for 5-5. The duo looked evenly matched during the exchanges, with the American creating plenty of opportunities to win the opponent's serve. But the champion saved service break opportunity after break point, extending the run to the point of agony. When he eventually did convert a single of the chances at 5-5 in the second set, he immediately played a terrible service game to lose his own serve once more; Djokovic had lulled him into a battle secondary to the main contest and forced him to expend excessive energy to win it. Facing set points in the final game, Fritz’s primary delivery sailed to the sky. He extended the contest two times on his backup delivery, but finally committed two errors. It wasn’t a choke, I didn’t think, just a result of needing to hit too many second serves.

The contest was quite ironclad evidence that Fritz is insufficiently skilled to defeat any version of the Serbian, who lost to the Spaniard in the following match and never especially appeared like he thought he could triumph. This is perfectly acceptable – the Serbian is the greatest of all time, and may not be at the height of his athletic abilities anymore, but has acquired sufficient experience and tactical know-how to compensate for a significant portion of the drop-off. The problem is those who were anticipating Fritz to prevail, and pressuring him to achieve that, when he was had not done anything that indicated he would.

The American is an valuable contributor to the tour regardless. He’s a calm, thoughtful presence in press conferences, exceeding virtually anyone on the ATP aside from Daniil Medvedev, willing to not just express his emotions or the strategy he believed determined a contest, but clarify it. That he should shoulder the majority of the blame for the United States failing to spawn a male major champion since Andy Roddick seems unfair. (Now that Ben Shelton is rubbing shoulders with him in the rankings, maybe they can divide that burden.)

ATP Finals: Player Divisions

Jimmy Connors Division

• The Spanish phenom
• The American contender
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• The Italian stylist

Swedish icon Division

• Jannik Sinner (It)
• The German powerhouse
• The rising American
• The Canadian talent

“I’d probably think about it forever if I don’t do it,” Fritz informed an interviewer in June of winning a grand slam. I hope he realizes that he’s not unsuccessful if he doesn’t fulfill that objective, that breaking through the Spanish and Italian's dominant, formidable empire is in fact extremely unlikely for everybody else. {