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I have some thoughts regarding the comments made by the sports network broadcaster a well-known announcer after Novak Djokovic's win over Taylor Fritz during the New York major last eight. Look – Fritz is the United States, the commentator is from the US – and athletic competitions often lend themselves to patriotic sentiment. A little bit of disappointment would have been appropriate. Instead, he brought up the ongoing drought of American men at grand slam tournaments: not one of them has won a trophy since the last American champion in 2003, and Fritz had been the final representative in the competition.

Everyone love a storyline, me too. But come on. Suppose Fritz defeated Djokovic for the first time, force of nature Carlos Alcaraz was waiting in the next round, who Fritz has never defeated in an official match. And had he someway gotten past that, it would have been defending champion Jannik Sinner, versus him Fritz had dropped 10 of the last 11 sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also divided the previous seven grand slams (plus Alcaraz proceeded to defeat a fatigued Djokovic in the next round). He stated in press after the loss that he actually preferred his path, because it presented the chance to beat the top three competitors in the world back-to-back. He is well justified to aim for the accomplishment; an athlete is meant to believe in themselves. But entering that Djokovic quarter-final who else sensibly had the lack of American champions on the brain?

The American star's weaker delivery the sole barrier standing in her way and sustained success

The American, twenty-eight, is ranked fourth in the world entering the upcoming ATP World Tour Finals and has secured his previous six encounters over third-ranked Alexander Zverev with growing comfort. It's likely he could claim that position for himself in the future. But it’s clear that at present, that’s as far as he can climb: Sinner and Alcaraz sit a chasm of ranking points away. Fritz’s elite serve and powerful power on each front side and backhand are more than adequate to defeat the majority of opponents on the ATP tour. Against the select few generational talents, however, he is often overmatched. The last several seasons has seen the interesting rise of lanky, towering athletes who can nonetheless cover the court with the surprising speed and grace of smaller players. He is six-foot-five and looks it. His movement is stiff, as if he’s still getting used to his legs. So he seldom steal a point that the opponent was controlling, and playing a drop shot versus him is typically a safe bet. That acts as a pretty harsh limitation on his potential.

The American has made a number of significant, improbable improvements throughout his career. Early on of the decade, he was circling the lower end of the world's best thirty. 24 months later, he was approaching the elite ten. Last year, he unexpectedly surged to No 4 – and held the spot. But the next leap, competing against and beating all-time-greats like the young Spaniard, Sinner, and including a declining Djokovic, is the highest of all. What was Fowler have been thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a serious threat to beat them all back-to-back? That it was appropriate commenting on the continuing slump of US male players lifting grand slams when he had departed the US Open in the quarter-finals? The desperation is just too much and the appreciation for the magnitude of the challenge insufficient.

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

The American's play in that exact quarter-final should have been enough of an sign. Djokovic won in four rounds, a victory that only felt uncertain for moments towards the conclusion, when the American had survived a few match points and had a chance to maintain serve for 5-5. The duo appeared well-balanced during the exchanges, with the American creating plenty of chances to break. But the champion saved service break opportunity after break point, extending the streak to the point of frustration. When he finally did convert one of the chances at 5-5 in the middle stanza, he promptly played a terrible service game to lose his own serve once more; Djokovic had lulled him into a skirmish peripheral to the real battle and compelled him to expend far too much energy to win it. Down match points in the last game, his primary delivery sailed to the sky. He extended the contest two times on his backup delivery, but ultimately double-faulted. It wasn’t a collapse, I didn’t think, just a result of having to hit too many weaker deliveries.

The contest was quite ironclad evidence that Fritz is not good enough to beat any form of Djokovic, who lost to Alcaraz in the following match and did not especially seem like he thought he could triumph. This is perfectly fine – Djokovic is the greatest of all time, and might not be at the height of his athletic abilities now, but has acquired enough experience and strategic intelligence to make up for a significant portion of the drop-off. The issue is the individuals who were expecting Fritz to win, and putting pressure on him to achieve that, when he was had not done anything that indicated he would.

Fritz is an asset to the circuit nonetheless. He’s a calm, thoughtful voice in media sessions, more so than virtually everyone on the men's tour except for Daniil Medvedev, willing to not only say how he feels or the strategy he believed decided a match, but explain it. That he should bear the brunt of the blame for America failing to spawn a men's grand slam winner since the last American titlist seems unjust. (Since Ben Shelton is rubbing shoulders with him in the rankings, maybe they can share that load.)

ATP Finals: Singles Groups

Jimmy Connors Division

• The Spanish phenom
• The American contender
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• Lorenzo Musetti (It)

Swedish icon Group

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

“I’d probably dwell on it indefinitely if I don’t accomplish it,” Fritz told an interviewer in the summer of winning a major. I hope he understands that he’s not unsuccessful if he does not achieve that objective, that breaking through the Spanish and Italian's dominant, formidable reign is actually extremely unlikely for everybody else. {