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I have a few thoughts regarding the comments made by ESPN commentator Chris Fowler after Novak Djokovic's victory over the American player in the US Open quarter-finals. Look – the athlete represents American, the commentator is American – and athletic competitions often lend themselves to patriotic sentiment. A little bit of letdown was understandable. Rather, he brought up the ongoing absence of US male players at grand slam tournaments: none of them has won a trophy since Andy Roddick in 2003, and he had been the final representative in the tournament.

Everyone love a narrative, me too. But really. Suppose Fritz defeated Djokovic for the initial occasion, force of nature Carlos Alcaraz was looming in the next round, whom he has yet to beat in an official match. And if he’d someway gotten past that, it would have been title holder Jannik Sinner, versus him the American had dropped 10 of the previous eleven sets. The two young stars had also split the last seven grand slams (and the Spaniard proceeded to defeat a fatigued Djokovic in the subsequent match). He stated in press following his defeat that he actually preferred his draw, because it presented the chance to defeat the top three players in the sport in succession. He is well within his right to aim for the accomplishment; an athlete is meant to have faith in themselves. But entering that Serbian quarter-final what other person sensibly had the drought of American champions on the brain?

Coco Gauff’s weaker delivery the sole barrier between her and sustained success

The American, 28, is ranked number four in the world starting the upcoming year-end championships and has won his previous six encounters over third-ranked the German with increasing ease. Presumably he could claim that position for himself in the future. But evidently that right now, that’s as far as he can climb: Sinner and Alcaraz lie a vast gap of performance metrics away. His top-class serve and concussive power on each front side and reverse side are more than adequate to dispose of most rivals on the professional circuit. When facing the select few once-in-a-lifetime players, though, he is often overmatched. The past few years has seen the interesting rise of lanky, towering athletes who can nonetheless move around with the alarming speed and grace of much shorter men. Fritz is six-foot-five and looks it. His footwork is stiff, as if he’s still getting used to his legs. So he’ll rarely steal a point that the other player was controlling, and playing a soft shot versus him is typically a reliable tactic. That acts as a pretty harsh limitation on his upside.

Fritz has achieved a number of significant, improbable improvements over the years. At the beginning of the ten-year period, he was circling the lower end of the world's best thirty. 24 months after, he was approaching the top 10. Last year, he suddenly exploded to No 4 – and held the spot. But the next leap, mixing it up with and beating all-time-greats like the young Spaniard, the Italian, and including a aging Serbian, is the highest of all. What was the commentator thinking? That Fritz, in 2025, was a legitimate contender to beat them all back-to-back? That it was worth commenting on the ongoing slump of American men lifting major titles when he had exited the US Open in the quarter-finals? The thirst is simply too much and the respect for the difficulty of the challenge too little.

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

Fritz’s play in that exact quarter-final ought to have been enough of an sign. Djokovic triumphed in four sets, a win that only seemed tenuous for brief periods towards the conclusion, when Fritz had survived a couple championship opportunities and had a chance to maintain serve for 5-5. The duo appeared well-balanced during the exchanges, with Fritz creating numerous opportunities to win the opponent's serve. But Djokovic saved break point after break point, prolonging the streak to the point of agony. When Fritz finally did claim a single of the opportunities at 5-5 in the middle stanza, he immediately produced a horrendous service game to lose his own serve again; the Serbian had drawn him into a battle peripheral to the main contest and compelled him to use excessive energy to win it. Down set points in the last game, his first serve floated to heaven. He extended the match two times on his backup delivery, but ultimately double-faulted. It was not a choke, I didn’t think, just a result of needing to hit too many weaker deliveries.

The match was quite ironclad proof that the American is not good enough to beat any form of Djokovic, who was defeated by Alcaraz in the following match and did not particularly seem like he thought 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 sufficient knowledge and tactical know-how to make up for quite a bit of the drop-off. The issue is the individuals who were expecting Fritz to win, and pressuring him to achieve that, when he was yet to accomplished anything that suggested he could.

The American is an valuable contributor to the tour regardless. He’s a patient, thoughtful presence in press conferences, more so than almost anyone on the men's tour aside from Daniil Medvedev, willing to not just say his emotions or the strategy he felt determined a match, but clarify it. That he should bear the brunt of the blame for the United States not spawn a male major champion since the last American titlist feels unjust. (Now that Ben Shelton is competing alongside him in the standings, maybe they can share that load.)

ATP Finals: Singles Groups

American legend Division

• Carlos Alcaraz (Sp)
• The American contender
• The Australian speedster
• The Italian stylist

Swedish icon Division

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

“I would likely think about it indefinitely if I don’t do it,” the American informed an interviewer in the summer of winning a grand slam. It is hoped he understands that he’s not unsuccessful if he doesn’t achieve that objective, that breaking through Alcaraz and Sinner’s young, terrifying reign is actually highly unlikely for everybody else. {