🔗 Share this article

I have some opinions regarding that comments made by ESPN commentator Chris Fowler following Novak Djokovic's victory over Taylor Fritz in the US Open quarter-finals. Consider – the athlete represents the United States, Fowler is from the US – and sports often encourage patriotic sentiment. A little bit of letdown was appropriate. Rather, Fowler invoked the ongoing absence of American men at grand slam tournaments: none of them has won a trophy since the last American champion in 2003, and Fritz had been the final representative in the tournament.

We all enjoy a storyline, me too. But come on. Suppose Fritz had beaten the legend for the initial occasion, force of nature the Spanish star was looming in the next round, who Fritz has never defeated in an official match. And if he’d someway survived that, it would have been defending champion the Italian, against whom the American had dropped 10 of the previous eleven sets. The two young stars had also split the last seven grand slams (and Alcaraz went on to thrash a tired Djokovic in the next round). He said in press following his defeat that he in fact liked his path, because it presented the chance to beat the three best competitors in the sport back-to-back. He is more than justified to aspire to the achievement; an competitor is meant 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?

The American star's weaker delivery the sole barrier between her and sustained success

Fritz, twenty-eight, is ranked number four in the global rankings entering this week’s ATP World Tour Finals and has secured his last six encounters over No 3 the German with growing comfort. It's likely he might claim that position for himself in the future. But evidently that at present, that’s as high as he can rise: Sinner and Alcaraz lie a chasm of performance metrics away. Fritz’s top-class serve and powerful power on both forehand and reverse side are more than enough to defeat the majority of rivals on the professional circuit. Against the select few once-in-a-lifetime players, however, he is frequently overmatched. The last several years has seen the interesting rise of tall, gangly players who can nonetheless cover the court with the surprising speed and grace of much shorter players. Fritz is 6ft 5ins and appears that way. His movement is stiff, as if he’s still getting used to his legs. So he seldom win a rally that the other player was dictating, and hitting a drop shot against him is typically a reliable tactic. That serves as a quite harsh limitation on his potential.

Fritz has achieved a number of dramatic, unexpected advancements throughout his career. At the beginning of the ten-year period, he was hovering around the lower end of the top 30. Two years later, he was approaching the elite ten. The previous season, he suddenly surged to No 4 – and maintained the spot. But the next leap, competing against and beating legendary figures like the young Spaniard, the Italian, and even a aging Djokovic, is the toughest of all. What could the commentator thinking? That Fritz, in 2025, was a serious threat to defeat them all back-to-back? That it was worth commenting on the continuing drought of American men lifting major titles when he had exited the US Open in the quarter-finals? The thirst is just too much and the respect for the difficulty of the challenge too little.

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

The American's performance in that exact last eight match should have been sufficient of an indication. The Serbian triumphed in four rounds, a win that only felt tenuous for brief periods towards the conclusion, when the American had survived a few championship opportunities and had a opportunity to hold for 5-5. The pair appeared evenly matched during the exchanges, with Fritz creating plenty of chances to break. But the champion saved break point after break point, prolonging the run to the brink of frustration. When he eventually did convert a single of the chances at 5-5 in the middle stanza, he promptly played a horrendous game to lose his own serve once more; Djokovic had drawn him into a skirmish secondary to the real battle and forced him to use far too much effort to prevail. Facing set points in the last game, Fritz’s first serve floated to the sky. He extended the contest two times on his backup delivery, but ultimately committed two errors. It was not a choke, I didn’t think, only a result of needing to hit too many second serves.

The contest was quite ironclad evidence that the American is not good enough to defeat any form of Djokovic, that lost to the Spaniard in the next round and did not particularly seem like he thought he could win. This is perfectly fine – Djokovic is the greatest of all time, and might not be at the height of his physical powers anymore, but has acquired enough experience and tactical know-how to compensate for quite a bit of the decline. The problem is those who were anticipating Fritz to win, and putting pressure on him to do so, when he was yet to done anything that suggested he could.

The American is an asset to the circuit nonetheless. He’s a calm, thoughtful presence in press conferences, more so than almost everyone on the men's tour except for the Russian star, prepared to not just say his emotions or the strategy he believed decided a match, but clarify it. That he ought to shoulder the majority of the responsibility for America not spawn a male major champion since the last American titlist feels unjust. (Now that Ben Shelton is rubbing shoulders with him in the rankings, perhaps they can share that load.)

ATP Finals: Player Divisions

Jimmy Connors Group

• The Spanish phenom
• The American contender
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• The Italian stylist

Swedish icon Division

• Jannik Sinner (It)
• The German powerhouse
• Ben Shelton (US)
• The Canadian talent

“I would likely think about it indefinitely if I fail to do it,” the American told a journalist in June of winning a grand slam. I hope he realizes that he’s not unsuccessful if he doesn’t fulfill that objective, that breaking through the Spanish and Italian's young, terrifying reign is actually extremely improbable for everybody else. {