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I have a few thoughts about that comments delivered by ESPN broadcaster Chris Fowler after Novak Djokovic's victory over the American player during the US Open last eight. Consider – the athlete represents the United States, Fowler is American – and sports often lend themselves to patriotic sentiment. Some disappointment was appropriate. Rather, he brought up the ongoing absence of American men at the majors: not one of them had lifted a title since Andy Roddick in 2003, and he had been the last one standing in the competition.

Everyone enjoy a narrative, me too. But really. Even if the American defeated the legend for the initial occasion, phenomenal talent the Spanish star was waiting in the following match, who Fritz has never defeated in an official match. And if he’d someway gotten past that, it would have been defending champion Jannik Sinner, versus him Fritz had lost 10 of the previous eleven sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also split the previous seven grand slams (and the Spaniard went on to defeat a fatigued Serbian in the next round). Fritz said in press after the loss that he actually liked his path, because it offered the opportunity to defeat the top three players in the world back-to-back. Fritz is more than within his right to aim for the accomplishment; an athlete is meant to believe in themselves. But entering that Serbian last eight match who else sensibly had the lack of US winners in mind?

Coco Gauff’s second serve the sole barrier between her and sustained success

Fritz, 28, is placed number four in the global rankings entering this week’s ATP World Tour Finals and has secured his previous six encounters over third-ranked Alexander Zverev with growing comfort. It's likely he might take that spot for himself in the coming years. But it’s clear that right now, that’s as far as he can climb: The Italian and Spaniard lie a chasm of ranking points away. His top-class serve and powerful strength on each front side and reverse side are more than enough to dispose of the majority of opponents on the ATP tour. When facing the handful of once-in-a-lifetime players, however, he is frequently overmatched. The last several seasons has witnessed the interesting emergence of lanky, towering players who can nonetheless move around with the surprising speed and grace of smaller players. He is 6ft 5ins and looks it. His movement is rigid, as if he’s still getting used to his legs. So he seldom steal a point that the other player was controlling, and playing a soft shot versus him is usually a reliable tactic. That acts as a quite severe limitation on his upside.

Fritz has achieved a several dramatic, improbable advancements throughout his career. At the beginning of the ten-year period, he was circling the lower end of the world's best thirty. Two years after, he was approaching the elite ten. The previous season, he unexpectedly exploded to No 4 – and held the position. But the next leap, competing against and beating all-time-greats like the young Spaniard, Sinner, and including a declining Serbian, is the highest of all. What was Fowler have been thinking? That Fritz, in 2025, was a serious threat to defeat them all back-to-back? That it was appropriate commenting on the continuing drought of US male players lifting major titles when he had departed the New York major in the quarter-finals? The thirst is just excessive and the appreciation for the magnitude of the challenge insufficient.

The American star made a personal best advancement to the Wimbledon last four in July.

Fritz’s play in that very quarter-final should have been enough of an sign. Djokovic triumphed in four sets, a victory that only seemed tenuous for brief periods towards the conclusion, when the American had saved a few championship opportunities and had a chance to maintain serve for 5-5. The pair looked well-balanced during the rallies, with Fritz earning plenty of chances to win the opponent's serve. But the champion rescued service break opportunity after break point, prolonging the run to the point of agony. When Fritz finally did convert a single of the opportunities at 5-5 in the middle stanza, he immediately produced a horrendous game to lose his own serve again; Djokovic had drawn him into a battle peripheral to the real battle and forced him to use excessive effort to win it. Facing set points in the final game, his primary delivery sailed to the sky. He prolonged the match two times on his second serve, but finally committed two errors. It wasn’t a collapse, I didn’t think, only a consequence of needing to hit an excessive number of second serves.

The contest was fairly compelling proof that the American is insufficiently skilled to beat any version of Djokovic, that was defeated by Alcaraz in the following match and did not especially seem like he thought he could triumph. This is perfectly acceptable – Djokovic is the greatest of all time, and may not be at the height of his athletic abilities anymore, but has developed sufficient knowledge and strategic intelligence to make up for quite a bit of the drop-off. The issue is the individuals who were anticipating the American to prevail, and putting pressure on him to achieve that, when he was yet to done anything that suggested he could.

Fritz is an valuable contributor to the tour regardless. He’s a calm, reflective presence in press conferences, exceeding virtually anyone on the ATP aside from Daniil Medvedev, willing 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 male major champion since Andy Roddick seems unjust. (Since the fellow American is competing alongside him in the rankings, perhaps they can divide that burden.)

ATP Finals: Player Divisions

Jimmy Connors Division

• The Spanish phenom
• Taylor Fritz (US)
• The Australian speedster
• Lorenzo Musetti (It)

Bjorn Borg Group

• Jannik Sinner (It)
• Alexander Zverev (Ger)
• The rising American
• The Canadian talent

“I would likely dwell on it forever if I don’t do it,” the American told an interviewer in June of claiming a grand slam. I hope he understands that he’s not a failure if he does not fulfill that goal, that breaking through Alcaraz and Sinner’s young, terrifying reign is in fact highly unlikely for everybody else. {