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I possess some thoughts regarding that remarks made by the sports network commentator Chris Fowler following the Serbian champion's victory over Taylor Fritz in the New York major quarter-finals. Consider – Fritz is the United States, the commentator is from the US – and athletic competitions frequently encourage patriotic sentiment. A little bit of disappointment would have been appropriate. Rather, Fowler brought up the continued absence of US male players at the majors: not one of them had lifted a trophy since Andy Roddick in 2003, and Fritz had been the final representative in the competition.

We all love a narrative, me too. But really. Even if the American had beaten the legend for the first time, force of nature Carlos Alcaraz was waiting in the next round, whom Fritz has yet to beat in an competitive encounter. And if he’d someway survived that, it would have been defending champion Jannik Sinner, versus him the American had dropped 10 of the previous eleven sets. The two young stars had also split the last seven major titles (plus the Spaniard went on to defeat a fatigued Serbian in the subsequent match). Fritz stated in post-match interviews following his defeat that he actually preferred his path, because it offered the opportunity to beat the three best players in the world back-to-back. Fritz is more than justified to aspire to the accomplishment; an athlete is supposed to believe in themselves. But going into that Serbian last eight match who else in their right mind had the lack of American champions in mind?

Coco Gauff’s second serve the sole barrier between her and sustained success

The American, twenty-eight, is placed number four in the global rankings starting the upcoming ATP World Tour Finals and has secured his previous six encounters over third-ranked the German with growing comfort. Presumably he might take that spot for himself in the future. But it’s clear that right now, that is as far as he can rise: The Italian and Spaniard sit a chasm of performance metrics away. His top-class delivery and concussive power on both front side and reverse side are sufficiently adequate to defeat most opponents on the professional circuit. Against the handful of generational talents, however, he is often helpless. The past few years has seen the curious emergence of tall, gangly athletes who can nevertheless move around with the alarming speed and fluidity of much shorter men. Fritz is six-foot-five and looks it. His footwork is stiff, as if he hasn't fully adapted to his legs. So he’ll rarely steal a point that the other player was controlling, and hitting a drop shot against him is usually a reliable tactic. That acts as a pretty severe restriction on his potential.

The American has achieved a number of significant, unexpected improvements over the years. At the beginning of the decade, he was hovering around the bottom of the world's best thirty. Two years after, he was sniffing the elite ten. The previous season, he suddenly exploded up to No 4 – and held the spot. But the subsequent step, mixing it up with and beating legendary figures like Alcaraz, Sinner, and including a declining Djokovic, is the toughest of all. What could Fowler have been thinking? That Fritz, in 2025, was a serious threat to beat them all back-to-back? That it was worth commenting on the ongoing slump of American men winning major titles when Fritz had departed the New York major in the quarter-finals? The desperation is just too much and the respect for the difficulty of the challenge too little.

The American star achieved a personal best advancement to the Wimbledon semi-finals in the summer.

Fritz’s performance in that very quarter-final ought to have been enough of an indication. Djokovic triumphed in four sets, a win that only felt tenuous for brief periods towards the very end, when the American had survived a couple match points and had a opportunity to hold for 5-5. The duo appeared well-balanced during the exchanges, with Fritz creating plenty of chances to win the opponent's serve. But Djokovic saved break point after break point, prolonging the run to the point of frustration. When Fritz finally did claim one of the opportunities at 5-5 in the second set, he immediately produced a horrendous service game to drop serve again; Djokovic had drawn him into a battle secondary to the main contest and compelled him to expend far too much energy to win it. Facing match points in the last game, Fritz’s primary delivery floated to heaven. He extended the match two times on his second serve, but ultimately committed two errors. It was not a choke, in my opinion, only a consequence of having to hit an excessive number of weaker deliveries.

The contest was fairly compelling evidence that Fritz is not good enough to beat any version of the Serbian, that lost to Alcaraz in the next round and did not especially appeared like he believed he could triumph. This is absolutely fine – Djokovic is the best player ever, and may not be at the peak of his physical powers anymore, but has acquired sufficient knowledge and tactical know-how to compensate 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 had not done anything that suggested he could.

The American is an asset to the circuit nonetheless. He’s a calm, thoughtful presence in media sessions, more so than almost anyone on the men's tour aside from the Russian star, prepared to not only say how he feels or the tactic he believed decided a match, but explain 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 competing alongside him in the standings, maybe they can divide that burden.)

Year-End Championships: Singles Groups

American legend Division

• The Spanish phenom
• Taylor Fritz (US)
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• Lorenzo Musetti (It)

Bjorn Borg Division

• The Italian champion
• Alexander Zverev (Ger)
• Ben Shelton (US)
• Félix Auger-Aliassime (Can)

“I would likely dwell on it indefinitely if I don’t accomplish it,” Fritz told an interviewer in June of winning a major. I hope he understands that he’s not unsuccessful if he does not achieve that objective, that breaking through the Spanish and Italian's young, terrifying empire is in fact highly unlikely for everybody else. {