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I have some opinions about that comments delivered by the sports network commentator a well-known announcer after the Serbian champion's win over the American player during the New York major quarter-finals. Consider – the athlete represents the United States, Fowler is from the US – and sports frequently encourage patriotic sentiment. A little bit of letdown would have been appropriate. Rather, Fowler invoked the ongoing absence of American men at the majors: not one of them has won a title since Andy Roddick in 2003, and he had been the final representative in the tournament.

Everyone enjoy a storyline, myself included. But come on. Even if Fritz had beaten Djokovic for the first time, force of nature the Spanish star was looming in the following match, who Fritz has yet to beat in an competitive encounter. And if he’d somehow survived that, it would have been defending champion Jannik Sinner, versus him the American had dropped 10 of the last 11 sets. The two young stars had also divided the previous seven grand slams (plus the Spaniard proceeded to defeat a fatigued Djokovic in the subsequent match). He said in post-match interviews after the loss that he in fact liked his path, because it offered the opportunity to beat the three best competitors in the sport back-to-back. Fritz is more than justified to aim for the accomplishment; an competitor is meant to have faith in themselves. But going into that Djokovic quarter-final who else sensibly had the drought of American champions on the brain?

Coco Gauff’s weaker delivery the only thing between her and consistent victories

The American, twenty-eight, is ranked fourth in the global rankings starting this week’s year-end championships and has won his last six encounters over No 3 the German with increasing ease. Presumably he might claim that position for himself in the future. But it’s clear that at present, that’s as far as he can climb: The Italian and Spaniard sit a vast gap of performance metrics away. Fritz’s elite serve and powerful power on both front side and reverse side are more than enough to defeat the majority of opponents on the professional circuit. Against the handful of generational talents, though, Fritz is frequently overmatched. The last several seasons has seen the interesting emergence of lanky, towering athletes who can nevertheless cover the court with the surprising quickness and fluidity of much shorter players. He 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 playing a soft shot against him is usually a reliable tactic. That acts as a pretty severe restriction on his upside.

The American has achieved a several dramatic, improbable improvements throughout his career. At the beginning of the decade, he was hovering around the bottom of the world's best thirty. 24 months after, he was sniffing the elite ten. Last year, he suddenly exploded to fourth place – and maintained the spot. But the next leap, mixing it up with and beating legendary figures like Alcaraz, the Italian, and even a declining Serbian, is the highest of all. What was the commentator have been thinking? That Fritz, in 2025, was a legitimate contender to beat them all back-to-back? That it was worth commenting on the continuing slump of American men lifting major titles when he had departed the US Open in the quarter-finals? The thirst is simply too much and the appreciation for the magnitude of the task insufficient.

Taylor Fritz made a career-best advancement to the Wimbledon semi-finals in the summer.

Fritz’s play in that very quarter-final should have been sufficient of an indication. The Serbian won in four sets, a win that only felt uncertain for brief periods towards the conclusion, when the American had saved a few match points and had a chance to hold for 5-5. The pair looked evenly matched during the rallies, with the American earning plenty of opportunities to break. But Djokovic saved service break opportunity after service break opportunity, prolonging the run to the brink of frustration. When he finally did claim one of the opportunities at 5-5 in the second set, he promptly played a terrible game to drop serve again; Djokovic had lulled him into a skirmish peripheral to the main contest and compelled him to use far too much energy to win it. Facing match points in the final game, his primary delivery floated to heaven. He extended the match twice on his second serve, but ultimately committed two errors. It was not a collapse, in my opinion, only a consequence of having to hit an excessive number of second serves.

The match was quite ironclad evidence that Fritz is insufficiently skilled to beat any version of the Serbian, that was defeated by the Spaniard in the following match and never particularly appeared like he thought he could win. This is perfectly fine – Djokovic is the best player ever, and may not be at the height of his athletic abilities anymore, but has acquired sufficient knowledge and tactical know-how to make up for quite a bit of the decline. The issue is those who were anticipating Fritz to prevail, and putting pressure on him to do so, when he was yet to accomplished anything that indicated he would.

Fritz is an valuable contributor to the circuit nonetheless. He’s a calm, thoughtful voice in press conferences, exceeding almost anyone on the men's tour aside from the Russian star, prepared to not only say his emotions or the tactic he believed determined a contest, but clarify it. That he should shoulder the majority of the blame for America not spawn a male major champion since Andy Roddick seems unjust. (Since the fellow American is rubbing shoulders with him in the standings, maybe they can share that burden.)

Year-End Championships: Singles Groups

Jimmy Connors Division

• Carlos Alcaraz (Sp)
• The American contender
• The Australian speedster
• Lorenzo Musetti (It)

Bjorn Borg Group

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

“I would likely dwell on it indefinitely if I fail to accomplish it,” Fritz told an interviewer in June of claiming a grand slam. I hope he understands that he’s not a failure if he does not achieve that goal, that overcoming Alcaraz and Sinner’s young, terrifying empire is actually extremely unlikely for all other players. {