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I possess some thoughts regarding the remarks delivered by ESPN commentator Chris Fowler after the Serbian champion's win over the American player during the US Open last eight. Look – Fritz is the United States, the commentator is from the US – and sports frequently lend themselves to patriotic sentiment. Some letdown was understandable. Rather, Fowler invoked the ongoing drought of American men at grand slam tournaments: not one of them has won a title since Andy Roddick in 2003, and Fritz had been the last one standing in the competition.

Everyone enjoy a narrative, myself included. But come on. Suppose the American defeated Djokovic for the first time, force of nature the Spanish star was waiting in the following match, who Fritz has yet to beat in an competitive encounter. And if he’d someway survived that, it would have been title holder Jannik Sinner, versus him Fritz had lost 10 of the previous eleven sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also split the last seven grand slams (plus the Spaniard proceeded to defeat a fatigued Serbian in the subsequent match). Fritz said in press after the loss that he in fact liked his draw, because it offered the chance to defeat the three best competitors in the sport back-to-back. Fritz is well within his right to aim for the accomplishment; an competitor is meant to believe in themselves. But going into that Serbian quarter-final what other person sensibly had the lack of US winners on the brain?

Coco Gauff’s second serve the sole barrier between her and consistent victories

Fritz, twenty-eight, is placed number four in the global rankings entering this week’s year-end championships and has secured his previous six encounters over No 3 Alexander Zverev with growing comfort. It's likely he could take that spot for himself in the future. But it’s clear that at present, that’s as far as he can climb: Sinner and Alcaraz lie a chasm of performance metrics away. Fritz’s top-class delivery and powerful power on both forehand and reverse side are sufficiently enough to defeat the majority of rivals on the ATP tour. Against the handful of generational talents, however, Fritz is often helpless. The past few seasons has seen the interesting emergence of lanky, towering athletes who can nevertheless cover the court with the alarming speed and fluidity of smaller players. Fritz is six-foot-five and appears that way. His footwork is stiff, as if he’s still getting used to his limbs. So he seldom win a rally that the other player was controlling, and hitting a drop shot against him is usually a safe bet. That serves as a quite severe restriction on his upside.

Fritz has achieved a number of significant, improbable advancements over the years. At the beginning of the decade, he was hovering around the lower end of the world's best thirty. 24 months later, he was sniffing the top 10. Last year, he unexpectedly surged up to fourth place – and held the position. But the next leap, mixing it up with and beating all-time-greats like the young Spaniard, the Italian, and even a declining Serbian, is the highest of all. What could Fowler thinking? That Fritz, in 2025, was a legitimate contender to beat them all back-to-back? That it was worth mentioning the ongoing drought of American men winning grand slams when Fritz had departed the New York major in the quarter-finals? The thirst is simply too much and the appreciation for the magnitude of the challenge insufficient.

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

The American's play in that very quarter-final ought to have been enough of an sign. The Serbian won in four rounds, a win that only felt tenuous for brief periods towards the conclusion, when the American had saved a few match points and had a opportunity to maintain serve for 5-5. The duo looked well-balanced during the rallies, with Fritz creating plenty of opportunities to break. But the champion rescued service break opportunity after break point, extending the streak to the brink of agony. When he finally did convert a single of the opportunities at 5-5 in the middle stanza, he immediately played a terrible service game to drop serve once more; Djokovic had drawn him into a battle secondary to the real battle and compelled him to expend far too much energy to prevail. Facing match points in the final game, Fritz’s primary delivery sailed to heaven. He prolonged the match two times on his second serve, but finally committed two errors. It wasn’t a choke, in my opinion, just a consequence of needing to hit an excessive number of second serves.

The match was quite ironclad evidence that Fritz is insufficiently skilled to beat any form of Djokovic, that lost to Alcaraz in the next round and never particularly appeared like he thought he could triumph. This is absolutely fine – the Serbian is the best player ever, and might not be at the height of his athletic abilities anymore, but has developed enough knowledge and strategic intelligence to compensate for quite a bit of the decline. The problem is those who were expecting the American to win, and pressuring him to do so, when he was had not done anything that suggested he would.

Fritz is an asset to the tour nonetheless. He’s a patient, thoughtful voice in media sessions, more so than virtually anyone on the ATP except for the Russian star, prepared to not just say how he feels or the strategy he felt determined a contest, but clarify it. That he ought to bear the brunt of the responsibility for the United States failing to spawn a men's grand slam winner since the last American titlist feels unfair. (Now that the fellow American is rubbing shoulders with him in the rankings, perhaps they can share that burden.)

Year-End Championships: Player Divisions

American legend Division

• The Spanish phenom
• Taylor Fritz (US)
• The Australian speedster
• The Italian stylist

Bjorn Borg Division

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

“I’d probably think about it indefinitely if I don’t do it,” the American told a journalist in June of winning a major. I hope he realizes that he’s not unsuccessful if he does not achieve that goal, that overcoming the Spanish and Italian's dominant, formidable empire is actually extremely improbable for everybody else. {