🔗 Share this article

I possess some thoughts about the comments made by the sports network commentator Chris Fowler following the Serbian champion's win over the American player in the US Open last eight. Look – the athlete represents American, Fowler is from the US – and athletic competitions frequently encourage patriotic sentiment. A little bit of letdown would have been appropriate. Rather, he brought up the ongoing drought of US male players at grand slam tournaments: none of them had lifted a title since the last American champion in 2003, and he had been the last one standing in the tournament.

We all enjoy a storyline, me too. But come on. Even if Fritz defeated the legend for the first time, phenomenal talent the Spanish star was looming in the next round, whom he has yet to beat in an official match. And had he somehow gotten past that, it would have been title holder Jannik Sinner, versus him the American had lost 10 of the last 11 sets. The two young stars had also split the last seven major titles (and Alcaraz went on to defeat a tired Serbian in the subsequent match). Fritz stated in press following his defeat that he in fact preferred his path, because it presented the opportunity to defeat the three best players in the sport back-to-back. Fritz is well within his right to aim for the achievement; an athlete is supposed to believe in themselves. But entering that Serbian quarter-final who else sensibly had the drought of American champions in mind?

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

Fritz, 28, is placed number four in the world entering the upcoming ATP World Tour Finals and has secured his last six matches over third-ranked the German with increasing ease. It's likely he could take that spot for himself in the future. But it’s clear that at present, that is as high as he can climb: The Italian and Spaniard sit a vast gap of ranking points away. His elite serve and concussive power on both forehand and backhand are sufficiently adequate to dispose of most opponents on the ATP tour. Against the handful of generational talents, however, he is often overmatched. The last several seasons has seen the curious emergence of tall, gangly athletes who can nonetheless move around with the alarming quickness and fluidity of smaller men. Fritz is six-foot-five 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 opponent was dictating, and playing a soft shot versus him is usually a safe bet. That acts as a quite severe restriction on his potential.

The American has made a number of significant, unexpected improvements over the years. Early on of the ten-year period, he was hovering around the lower end of the world's best thirty. 24 months after, he was approaching the elite ten. Last year, he suddenly surged to fourth place – and maintained the position. But the next leap, mixing it up with and beating legendary figures like the young Spaniard, the Italian, and including a declining Serbian, is the highest 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 slump of American men winning grand slams when he had departed the New York major in the quarter-finals? The thirst is simply too much and the respect for the difficulty of the task insufficient.

The American star made a personal best run to the All England Club last four in July.

Fritz’s performance in that very quarter-final should have been sufficient of an indication. Djokovic won in four sets, a victory that only seemed uncertain for brief periods towards the conclusion, when Fritz had survived a few match points and had a opportunity to maintain serve for 5-5. The duo looked well-balanced during the exchanges, with Fritz earning plenty of opportunities to break. But the champion saved service break opportunity after service break opportunity, extending the run to the point of agony. When he eventually did convert one of the opportunities at 5-5 in the second set, he immediately produced a terrible service game to lose his own serve again; the Serbian had drawn him into a skirmish secondary to the real battle and compelled him to expend excessive effort to prevail. Down match points in the last game, his primary delivery floated to heaven. He prolonged the match twice on his backup delivery, but ultimately committed two errors. It was not a choke, in my opinion, only a consequence of having to hit too many second serves.

The contest was quite ironclad proof that the American is not good enough to defeat any form of the Serbian, that was defeated by the Spaniard in the following match and did not particularly seem like he thought he could win. This is absolutely acceptable – the Serbian is the best player ever, and might not be at the height of his athletic abilities anymore, but has acquired enough experience and strategic intelligence to compensate for a significant portion of the decline. The problem is those who were anticipating the American to win, and putting pressure on him to do so, when he was had not accomplished anything that suggested he would.

The American is an asset to the tour regardless. He’s a calm, thoughtful presence in press conferences, exceeding virtually everyone on the ATP aside from the Russian star, willing to not only say how he feels or the strategy he believed determined a match, but explain it. That he should shoulder the majority of the responsibility for the United States failing to spawn a male major champion since Andy Roddick feels unfair. (Now that Ben Shelton is competing alongside him in the standings, maybe they can divide that burden.)

ATP Finals: Singles Groups

Jimmy Connors Division

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

Swedish icon Group

• Jannik Sinner (It)
• Alexander Zverev (Ger)
• The rising American
• Félix Auger-Aliassime (Can)

“I would likely think about it indefinitely if I fail to do it,” Fritz told a journalist in the summer of winning a major. It is hoped he realizes that he’s not unsuccessful if he does not fulfill that goal, that breaking through Alcaraz and Sinner’s young, terrifying empire is actually highly improbable for everybody else. {