🔗 Share this article

I possess a few opinions regarding that comments delivered 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 American – and sports frequently encourage patriotic sentiment. A little bit of letdown would have been understandable. Instead, Fowler invoked the ongoing absence of US male players at the majors: not one of them has won a title since the last American champion in 2003, and he had been the last one standing in the competition.

We all enjoy a storyline, me too. But really. Even if Fritz had beaten the legend for the first time, force of nature the Spanish star was waiting in the following match, who he has never defeated in an official match. And had he somehow gotten past that, it would have been title holder Jannik Sinner, against whom the American had lost 10 of the previous eleven sets. The two young stars had also split the last seven grand slams (and the Spaniard proceeded to thrash a tired Djokovic in the subsequent match). He stated in post-match interviews following his defeat that he in fact preferred his path, because it presented the opportunity to beat the top three players in the sport in succession. Fritz is more than justified to aspire to the achievement; an athlete is meant to believe in themselves. But entering that Djokovic last eight match who else in their right mind had the lack of US winners on the brain?

Coco Gauff’s second serve the only thing standing in her way and consistent victories

Fritz, twenty-eight, is placed fourth in the global rankings entering this week’s ATP World Tour Finals and has won his last six encounters over No 3 the German with growing comfort. It's likely he could claim that position for himself in the coming years. But evidently that right now, that is as far as he can rise: The Italian and Spaniard lie a chasm of ranking points away. His elite serve and powerful power on each front side and reverse side are sufficiently adequate to defeat the majority of rivals on the ATP tour. When facing the select few generational talents, though, he is frequently helpless. The last several seasons has seen the interesting emergence of lanky, towering athletes who can nonetheless cover the court with the surprising quickness and fluidity 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 legs. So he seldom steal a point that the opponent was controlling, and hitting a drop shot versus him is usually a reliable tactic. That acts as a quite harsh restriction on his upside.

Fritz has achieved a number of dramatic, unexpected advancements over the years. At the beginning of the ten-year period, he was circling the bottom of the world's best thirty. Two years after, he was sniffing the top 10. Last year, he suddenly surged up 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 Serbian, is the toughest of all. What was the commentator 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 grand slams when he had departed the US Open in the quarter-finals? The desperation is simply too much and the respect for the difficulty of the task too little.

Taylor Fritz achieved a career-best run to the All England Club semi-finals in the summer.

Fritz’s performance in that very quarter-final should have been enough of an indication. Djokovic won in four rounds, a victory that only seemed tenuous for moments towards the very end, when the American had saved a couple championship opportunities and had a opportunity to maintain serve for 5-5. The pair appeared well-balanced during the rallies, with Fritz creating plenty of chances to break. But Djokovic saved break point after service break opportunity, extending the streak to the point of frustration. When Fritz finally did convert one of the chances at 5-5 in the middle stanza, he promptly produced a terrible service game to lose his own serve again; Djokovic had drawn him into a skirmish peripheral to the real battle and forced him to expend far too much effort to prevail. Down match points in the final game, his first serve sailed to the sky. He extended the match twice on his backup delivery, but ultimately committed two errors. It was not a collapse, I didn’t think, only a consequence of having to hit too many second serves.

The contest was quite compelling proof that the American is insufficiently skilled to beat any version of the Serbian, who was defeated by Alcaraz in the next round and never especially seem like he believed he could win. This is absolutely fine – Djokovic is the greatest of all time, and may not be at the height of his athletic abilities now, but has acquired enough knowledge and tactical know-how to compensate for a significant portion of the decline. The problem 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.

Fritz is an asset to the tour regardless. He’s a calm, reflective voice in press conferences, exceeding almost anyone on the men's tour aside from Daniil Medvedev, prepared to not only say his emotions or the tactic he believed determined a contest, but explain it. That he should bear the brunt of the responsibility for America not spawn a men's grand slam winner since Andy Roddick seems unfair. (Since the fellow American is competing alongside him in the standings, perhaps they can divide that burden.)

Year-End Championships: Singles Groups

Jimmy Connors Division

• The Spanish phenom
• Taylor Fritz (US)
• The Australian speedster
• The Italian stylist

Swedish icon Division

• The Italian champion
• The German powerhouse
• The rising American
• The Canadian talent

“I’d probably think about it indefinitely if I fail to do it,” Fritz told an interviewer in the summer of winning a major. I hope he understands that he’s not a failure if he doesn’t achieve that goal, that overcoming the Spanish and Italian's dominant, formidable empire is in fact extremely unlikely for everybody else. {