🔗 Share this article

I have a few thoughts regarding that remarks delivered by ESPN broadcaster a well-known announcer after Novak Djokovic's win over Taylor Fritz during the US Open quarter-finals. Consider – Fritz is the United States, Fowler is American – and athletic competitions often encourage nationalism. Some letdown would have been appropriate. Instead, he invoked the ongoing absence of American men at grand slam tournaments: not one of them had lifted a title since the last American champion in 2003, and he had been the final representative in the competition.

Everyone enjoy a narrative, myself included. But really. Suppose the American had beaten the legend for the first time, force of nature Carlos Alcaraz was looming in the next round, who he has yet to beat in an competitive encounter. And if he’d somehow survived that, it would have been defending champion the Italian, against whom the American had lost 10 of the previous eleven sets. The two young stars had also split the last seven major titles (plus the Spaniard proceeded to defeat a fatigued Serbian in the next round). Fritz said in press after the loss that he actually preferred his draw, because it presented the chance to beat the top three players in the world in succession. Fritz is more than within his right to aspire to the accomplishment; an athlete is meant to have faith in themselves. But entering that Djokovic quarter-final who else sensibly had the lack of US winners in mind?

The American star's second serve the sole barrier between her and consistent victories

Fritz, twenty-eight, is ranked fourth in the global rankings entering this week’s ATP World Tour Finals and has won his last six matches over No 3 Alexander Zverev with increasing ease. It's likely he might claim that position for himself in the coming years. But it’s clear that right now, that is as far as he can rise: The Italian and Spaniard lie a vast gap of performance metrics away. His top-class delivery and powerful strength on both forehand and reverse side are more than adequate to defeat most opponents on the ATP tour. Against the handful of generational talents, however, Fritz is frequently helpless. The past few seasons has seen the curious rise of lanky, towering players who can nevertheless move around with the surprising speed and grace of smaller players. 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’ll rarely win a rally that the opponent was dictating, and hitting a soft shot against him is usually a safe bet. That serves as a quite severe limitation on his potential.

The American has made a number of significant, unexpected advancements over the years. At the beginning of the decade, he was hovering around the bottom of the world's best thirty. Two years later, he was approaching the top 10. The previous season, he suddenly exploded to No 4 – and maintained the position. But the subsequent step, mixing it up with and beating all-time-greats like Alcaraz, Sinner, and including a aging Serbian, is the toughest of all. What was the commentator have been thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a legitimate contender to defeat them all back-to-back? That it was appropriate commenting on the continuing drought of American men lifting major titles when he had exited the New York major in the quarter-finals? The desperation is just too much and the appreciation for the magnitude of the challenge insufficient.

The American star made a career-best advancement to the All England Club semi-finals in the summer.

Fritz’s performance in that very last eight match ought to have been enough of an sign. The Serbian won in four rounds, a victory that only seemed tenuous for brief periods towards the conclusion, when the American had survived a couple championship opportunities and had a chance to hold for 5-5. The duo appeared well-balanced during the exchanges, with the American creating numerous chances to break. But Djokovic saved service break opportunity after service break opportunity, extending the streak to the brink of frustration. When Fritz eventually did convert one of the chances at 5-5 in the second set, he promptly produced a terrible game to lose his own serve once more; the Serbian had drawn him into a battle peripheral to the real battle and forced him to use far too much effort to win it. Down set points in the last game, Fritz’s first serve sailed to heaven. He extended the match twice on his backup delivery, but finally committed two errors. It was not a collapse, I didn’t think, only a result of needing to hit too many weaker deliveries.

The match was quite compelling proof that the American is not good enough to defeat any version of the Serbian, who was defeated by the Spaniard in the following match and did not particularly seem like he thought he could win. This is perfectly acceptable – Djokovic is the greatest of all time, and may not be at the peak of his physical powers now, but has acquired sufficient knowledge and strategic intelligence to compensate for a significant portion of the drop-off. The issue is those who were anticipating Fritz to win, and putting pressure on him to achieve that, when he was had not done anything that suggested he would.

The American is an asset to the circuit nonetheless. He’s a patient, thoughtful voice in media sessions, exceeding virtually everyone on the men's tour except for the Russian star, prepared to not only say his emotions or the tactic he believed decided a match, but explain it. That he should shoulder the majority of the responsibility for the United States not produce a male major champion since Andy Roddick seems unfair. (Since the fellow American is competing alongside him in the standings, perhaps they can divide that load.)

ATP Finals: Player Divisions

Jimmy Connors Division

• Carlos Alcaraz (Sp)
• Taylor Fritz (US)
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• The Italian stylist

Swedish icon Division

• Jannik Sinner (It)
• Alexander Zverev (Ger)
• Ben Shelton (US)
• The Canadian talent

“I would likely think about it indefinitely if I fail to do it,” the American informed an interviewer in the summer of claiming a major. It is hoped he realizes that he’s not unsuccessful if he does not fulfill that goal, that overcoming Alcaraz and Sinner’s young, terrifying empire is in fact extremely improbable for everybody else. {