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I have a few thoughts regarding the comments made by the sports network broadcaster a well-known announcer following Novak Djokovic's win over Taylor Fritz in the US Open last eight. Consider – Fritz is American, the commentator is American – and athletic competitions often encourage patriotic sentiment. A little bit of letdown was appropriate. Rather, Fowler invoked the continued absence of US male players at the majors: not one of them had lifted a title since the last American champion in 2003, and Fritz had been the final representative in the competition.

We all love a storyline, me too. But come on. Even if the American had beaten Djokovic for the first time, force of nature Carlos Alcaraz was waiting in the next round, whom Fritz has never defeated in an competitive encounter. And if he’d someway survived that, it would have been title holder the Italian, versus him the American had dropped 10 of the previous eleven sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also split the last seven grand slams (plus the Spaniard went on to defeat a tired Djokovic in the next round). He said in post-match interviews following his defeat that he actually liked his draw, because it presented the chance to defeat the three best players in the sport back-to-back. Fritz is more than justified to aspire to the achievement; an athlete is supposed to have faith in themselves. But entering that Djokovic last eight match what other person in their right mind had the drought of American champions on the brain?

The American star's weaker delivery the only thing standing in her way and consistent victories

Fritz, 28, is ranked number four in the global rankings starting this week’s ATP World Tour Finals and has secured his last six matches over third-ranked the German with increasing ease. Presumably he could take that spot for himself in the coming years. But evidently that right now, that’s as high as he can rise: The Italian and Spaniard sit a chasm of ranking points away. His elite serve and concussive strength on both front side and reverse side are sufficiently adequate to dispose of most opponents on the ATP tour. When facing the select few once-in-a-lifetime players, however, he is frequently helpless. The last several seasons has witnessed the curious rise of lanky, towering players who can nevertheless move around with the surprising speed and fluidity of smaller players. Fritz is six-foot-five and looks it. His footwork is rigid, as if he’s still getting used to his legs. So he seldom steal a point that the opponent was dictating, and hitting a soft shot versus him is usually a reliable tactic. That serves as a quite harsh limitation on his potential.

The American has made a number of significant, unexpected improvements over the years. At the beginning of the decade, he was hovering around the bottom of the world's best thirty. 24 months after, he was approaching the elite ten. Last year, he suddenly exploded to No 4 – and held the spot. But the subsequent step, mixing it up with and beating legendary figures like the young Spaniard, the Italian, and even a aging Serbian, is the highest of all. What could the commentator have been thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a legitimate contender to beat them all back-to-back? That it was worth commenting on the continuing slump of US male players lifting grand slams when Fritz had departed the US Open in the quarter-finals? The desperation is simply excessive and the respect for the difficulty of the task too little.

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

Fritz’s performance in that very quarter-final ought to have been sufficient of an indication. Djokovic triumphed in four sets, a win that only seemed tenuous for brief periods towards the very end, when Fritz had saved a couple championship opportunities and had a chance to maintain serve for 5-5. The pair appeared evenly matched during the rallies, with the American earning plenty of opportunities to win the opponent's serve. But the champion saved service break opportunity after service break opportunity, extending the run to the brink of frustration. When Fritz finally did convert one 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 skirmish peripheral to the real battle and compelled him to use excessive energy to prevail. Down set points in the final game, his primary delivery sailed to heaven. He prolonged the match twice on his backup delivery, but finally double-faulted. It wasn’t a choke, in my opinion, only a consequence of having to hit too many weaker deliveries.

The match was fairly compelling evidence that Fritz is not good enough to defeat any version of Djokovic, who was defeated by the Spaniard in the following match and did not especially seem like he thought he could triumph. This is perfectly acceptable – Djokovic is the best player ever, and might not be at the peak of his athletic abilities now, but has acquired enough knowledge and tactical know-how to make up for a significant portion of the drop-off. The problem is the individuals who were expecting the American to prevail, and pressuring him to achieve that, when he was had not accomplished anything that suggested he could.

The American is an valuable contributor to the tour nonetheless. He’s a calm, thoughtful voice in press conferences, more so than virtually anyone on the ATP aside from the Russian star, prepared to not just say how he feels or the strategy he felt determined a contest, but explain it. That he ought to shoulder the majority of the responsibility for the United States failing to spawn a male major champion since the last American titlist feels unjust. (Now that the fellow American is rubbing shoulders with him in the standings, maybe they can divide that load.)

ATP Finals: Singles Groups

American legend Group

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

Swedish icon Group

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

“I’d probably dwell on it forever if I don’t do it,” the American told a journalist in the summer of claiming a major. I hope he realizes that he’s not a failure if he doesn’t achieve that goal, that overcoming Alcaraz and Sinner’s young, terrifying empire is actually highly unlikely for everybody else. {