🔗 Share this article

I possess a few thoughts regarding the remarks delivered by the sports network commentator Chris Fowler after Novak Djokovic's victory over the American player in the US Open last eight. Look – the athlete represents American, Fowler is from the US – and sports frequently lend themselves to nationalism. A little bit of disappointment would have been appropriate. Instead, he brought up the continued drought of American men at grand slam tournaments: none of them has won a trophy since the last American champion in 2003, and he had been the final representative in the tournament.

Everyone love a storyline, me too. But really. Even if the American defeated Djokovic for the initial occasion, force of nature Carlos Alcaraz was looming in the following match, who he has never defeated in an official match. And if he’d someway survived that, it would have been title holder Jannik Sinner, versus him Fritz had dropped 10 of the last 11 sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also divided the last seven major titles (plus the Spaniard went on to thrash a fatigued Djokovic in the next round). Fritz said in press following his defeat that he actually preferred his draw, because it offered the opportunity to defeat the top three players in the sport back-to-back. Fritz is well within his right to aspire to the accomplishment; an athlete is supposed to have faith in themselves. But entering that Serbian quarter-final who else in their right mind had the lack of US winners in mind?

The American star's weaker delivery the sole barrier between her and sustained success

The American, 28, is placed fourth in the world entering this week’s ATP World Tour Finals and has secured his previous six encounters over No 3 the German with growing comfort. It's likely he could take that spot for himself in the coming years. But evidently that right now, that is as far as he can climb: The Italian and Spaniard lie a chasm of performance metrics away. Fritz’s elite serve and powerful strength on each forehand and backhand are sufficiently enough to defeat the majority of rivals on the professional circuit. Against the handful of once-in-a-lifetime players, however, he is often helpless. The past few years has seen the interesting rise of lanky, towering players who can nonetheless move around with the surprising quickness and fluidity of smaller men. He is 6ft 5ins and looks it. His footwork is stiff, as if he’s still getting used to his limbs. So he’ll rarely steal a point that the other player 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 achieved a number of significant, unexpected advancements over the years. At the beginning of the decade, he was hovering around the bottom of the top 30. Two years after, he was approaching the top 10. The previous season, he suddenly surged to No 4 – and maintained the position. But the subsequent step, mixing it up with and defeating all-time-greats like Alcaraz, Sinner, and including a declining Djokovic, is the toughest of all. What was the commentator thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a legitimate contender to beat them all back-to-back? That it was appropriate mentioning the continuing slump of US male players lifting grand slams when Fritz had departed the US Open in the quarter-finals? The desperation is simply excessive and the appreciation for the difficulty of the challenge too little.

The American star made a personal best advancement to the Wimbledon semi-finals in July.

The American's performance in that very quarter-final ought to have been enough of an sign. Djokovic won in four sets, a win that only seemed uncertain for moments towards the very end, when Fritz had saved a few match points and had a opportunity to hold for 5-5. The duo looked evenly matched during the rallies, with Fritz earning numerous opportunities to break. But Djokovic rescued service break opportunity after service break opportunity, prolonging the run to the brink of agony. When Fritz eventually did claim one of the opportunities at 5-5 in the middle stanza, he immediately produced a horrendous service game to drop serve once more; the Serbian had drawn him into a battle secondary to the main contest and compelled him to expend excessive energy to prevail. Down set points in the last game, his primary delivery floated to the sky. He prolonged the contest twice on his second serve, but ultimately committed two errors. It was not a choke, I didn’t think, just a result of having to hit too many second serves.

The contest was quite ironclad proof that the American is insufficiently skilled to defeat any version of the Serbian, that lost to the Spaniard in the following match and never particularly seem like he thought he could win. This is absolutely fine – Djokovic is the greatest of all time, and may not be at the height of his physical powers anymore, but has acquired enough experience 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 achieve that, when he was yet to accomplished anything that suggested he could.

The American is an asset to the circuit regardless. He’s a calm, thoughtful presence in media sessions, exceeding almost everyone on the men's tour except for the Russian star, prepared to not only express how he feels or the tactic he believed determined a contest, but explain it. That he should shoulder the majority of the responsibility for the United States failing to produce a men's grand slam winner since Andy Roddick seems unjust. (Now that Ben Shelton is rubbing shoulders with him in the standings, maybe they can divide that burden.)

ATP Finals: Singles Groups

American legend Division

• The Spanish phenom
• Taylor Fritz (US)
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• The Italian stylist

Swedish icon Group

• Jannik Sinner (It)
• The German powerhouse
• The rising American
• Félix Auger-Aliassime (Can)

“I’d probably think about it forever if I don’t accomplish it,” the American told an interviewer in June of winning a major. I hope he understands that he’s not a failure if he doesn’t fulfill that goal, that overcoming Alcaraz and Sinner’s dominant, formidable reign is actually highly improbable for everybody else. {