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I have some opinions regarding the remarks delivered by ESPN broadcaster a well-known announcer after the Serbian champion's win over Taylor Fritz in the New York major last eight. Look – Fritz is the United States, the commentator is American – and sports often lend themselves to patriotic sentiment. A little bit of letdown would have been appropriate. Rather, he invoked the continued drought of American men at grand slam tournaments: not one of them had lifted a title since the last American champion in 2003, and Fritz had been the last one standing in the tournament.

We all love a storyline, myself included. But really. Suppose Fritz defeated the legend for the initial occasion, force of nature the Spanish star was looming in the next round, who he has never defeated in an official match. And had he somehow gotten past that, it would have been defending champion the Italian, against whom Fritz had dropped 10 of the previous eleven sets. The two young stars had also split the previous seven major titles (plus Alcaraz proceeded to defeat a fatigued Djokovic in the next round). Fritz said in post-match interviews following his defeat that he actually liked his path, because it presented the chance to beat the top three players in the sport back-to-back. Fritz is well justified to aspire to the accomplishment; an competitor is meant to believe in themselves. But going into that Serbian quarter-final what other person sensibly had the lack of American champions in mind?

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

Fritz, twenty-eight, is placed number four in the world entering this week’s ATP World Tour Finals and has won his last six matches over No 3 Alexander Zverev with growing comfort. Presumably he might take that spot for himself in the coming years. But it’s clear that at present, that’s as far as he can rise: Sinner and Alcaraz lie a vast gap of performance metrics away. Fritz’s elite serve and powerful strength on both forehand and backhand are sufficiently adequate to defeat the majority of opponents on the professional circuit. Against the handful of generational talents, though, he is often overmatched. The last several seasons has seen the interesting rise of tall, gangly athletes who can nonetheless cover the court with the surprising quickness and fluidity of much shorter players. Fritz is six-foot-five and appears that way. His footwork is rigid, as if he’s still getting used to his legs. So he seldom steal a point that the other player was controlling, and playing a soft shot versus him is usually a safe bet. That serves as a pretty severe limitation on his upside.

Fritz has achieved a several significant, unexpected improvements throughout his career. At the beginning of the decade, he was circling the bottom of the top 30. Two years after, he was approaching the top 10. The previous season, he unexpectedly surged up to fourth place – and maintained the position. But the subsequent step, mixing it up with and beating legendary figures like Alcaraz, Sinner, and including a aging Djokovic, is the highest of all. What was Fowler thinking? That Fritz, in 2025, was a legitimate contender to defeat them all back-to-back? That it was appropriate commenting on the ongoing drought of US male players lifting grand slams when Fritz had exited the New York major in the quarter-finals? The desperation is simply too much and the appreciation for the magnitude of the challenge too little.

The American star achieved a career-best advancement to the Wimbledon semi-finals in July.

Fritz’s performance in that very last eight match should have been sufficient of an indication. Djokovic won in four sets, a victory that only seemed uncertain for moments towards the conclusion, when the American had survived a couple championship opportunities and had a chance to maintain serve for 5-5. The duo looked well-balanced during the exchanges, with the American creating numerous opportunities to win the opponent's serve. But the champion rescued service break opportunity after service break opportunity, prolonging the streak to the brink of frustration. When Fritz finally did claim a single of the chances at 5-5 in the second set, he promptly played a terrible service game to drop serve again; Djokovic had lulled him into a skirmish secondary to the main contest and forced him to use excessive energy to win it. Down set points in the last game, his primary delivery sailed to the sky. He extended the contest two times on his second serve, but finally double-faulted. It wasn’t a choke, I didn’t think, just a result of having to hit too many weaker deliveries.

The match was quite compelling proof that the American is insufficiently skilled to beat any form of the Serbian, who was defeated by the Spaniard in the next round and did not particularly seem like he believed he could win. This is absolutely acceptable – Djokovic is the best player ever, and might not be at the height of his athletic abilities now, but has acquired sufficient knowledge and strategic intelligence to make up for quite a bit of the decline. The problem is the individuals who were anticipating the American to prevail, and putting pressure on him to achieve that, when he was yet to done anything that suggested he could.

Fritz is an valuable contributor to the tour regardless. He’s a patient, thoughtful voice in press conferences, exceeding virtually everyone on the men's tour aside from Daniil Medvedev, prepared to not only say his emotions or the tactic he believed decided a match, 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 the last American titlist seems unfair. (Now that Ben Shelton is competing alongside him in the rankings, perhaps they can divide that load.)

ATP Finals: Singles Groups

American legend Group

• Carlos Alcaraz (Sp)
• The American contender
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• Lorenzo Musetti (It)

Bjorn Borg Group

• Jannik Sinner (It)
• Alexander Zverev (Ger)
• Ben Shelton (US)
• The Canadian talent

“I’d probably think about it forever if I don’t accomplish it,” Fritz told an interviewer in the summer of winning a major. I hope he understands that he’s not unsuccessful if he does not achieve that goal, that overcoming Alcaraz and Sinner’s young, terrifying reign is actually extremely improbable for everybody else. {