🔗 Share this article

I possess a few thoughts regarding the remarks made by the sports network broadcaster a well-known announcer after the Serbian champion's victory over the American player in the US Open last eight. Look – the athlete represents American, the commentator is from the US – and sports often lend themselves to patriotic sentiment. A little bit of disappointment would have been understandable. Rather, he brought up the continued drought of American men at grand slam tournaments: none of them had lifted a title since Andy Roddick in 2003, and he had been the final representative in the competition.

We all love a narrative, me too. But come on. Even if Fritz had beaten the legend for the first time, force of nature the Spanish star was waiting in the following match, whom he has never defeated in an competitive encounter. And if he’d somehow survived that, it would have been title holder the Italian, against whom the American had dropped 10 of the previous eleven sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also divided the previous seven grand slams (plus Alcaraz proceeded to defeat a tired Serbian in the next round). He said in post-match interviews following his defeat that he actually liked his path, because it offered the opportunity to defeat the top three competitors in the world in succession. Fritz is well justified to aim for the accomplishment; an athlete is supposed to have faith in themselves. But entering that Serbian quarter-final who else in their right mind had the lack of American champions in mind?

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

The American, 28, is placed fourth in the world entering this week’s year-end championships and has won his last six encounters over No 3 Alexander Zverev with growing comfort. Presumably he might claim that position for himself in the future. But it’s clear that right now, that is as high as he can climb: The Italian and Spaniard lie a vast gap of ranking points away. Fritz’s elite delivery and concussive strength on both forehand and backhand are more than adequate to defeat the majority of opponents on the ATP tour. Against the handful of generational talents, though, Fritz is frequently helpless. The last several years has witnessed the curious rise of tall, gangly athletes who can nonetheless cover the court with the alarming quickness and fluidity of smaller men. He is 6ft 5ins and appears that way. His movement is stiff, as if he’s still getting used to his legs. So he’ll rarely win a rally that the other player was dictating, and hitting a soft shot versus him is usually a safe bet. That acts as a quite severe limitation on his upside.

Fritz has made a number of dramatic, unexpected improvements throughout his career. Early on of the decade, he was hovering around the bottom of the world's best thirty. Two years after, he was sniffing the top 10. The previous season, he suddenly surged up to fourth place – and held the spot. But the next leap, mixing it up with and defeating legendary figures like Alcaraz, the Italian, and even a aging Serbian, is the toughest of all. What was Fowler thinking? That Fritz, in 2025, was a serious threat to beat them all back-to-back? That it was worth mentioning the continuing drought of US male players winning grand slams when Fritz had departed the New York major in the quarter-finals? The thirst is simply too much and the respect for the difficulty of the challenge insufficient.

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

Fritz’s play in that exact last eight match should have been enough of an sign. The Serbian won in four rounds, a victory that only felt tenuous for brief periods towards the very end, when the American had saved a couple match points and had a opportunity to hold for 5-5. The duo looked evenly matched during the exchanges, with Fritz creating plenty of chances to win the opponent's serve. But the champion rescued service break opportunity after service break opportunity, prolonging the streak to the point of agony. When he finally did claim a single of the chances at 5-5 in the middle stanza, he immediately played a terrible service game to drop serve once more; the Serbian had drawn him into a battle secondary to the main contest and compelled him to use excessive energy to prevail. Down match points in the last game, Fritz’s primary delivery sailed to heaven. He prolonged the contest twice on his backup delivery, but finally double-faulted. It was not a collapse, I didn’t think, just a result of needing to hit too many weaker deliveries.

The contest was quite compelling proof that Fritz is insufficiently skilled to beat any version of Djokovic, who lost to Alcaraz in the next round and did not particularly appeared like he believed he could win. This is absolutely fine – Djokovic is the best player ever, and might not be at the peak of his physical powers anymore, but has acquired enough experience and strategic intelligence to make up for quite a bit of the decline. The issue is the individuals who were expecting Fritz to prevail, and putting pressure on him to achieve that, when he was yet to accomplished anything that indicated he would.

The American is an valuable contributor to the tour regardless. He’s a patient, thoughtful presence in press conferences, more so than virtually anyone on the ATP aside from the Russian star, willing to not only say how he feels or the strategy he believed determined a contest, but explain it. That he ought to shoulder the majority of the responsibility for America failing to spawn a men's grand slam winner since the last American titlist seems unjust. (Now that Ben Shelton is competing alongside him in the rankings, perhaps they can share that burden.)

ATP Finals: Singles Groups

American legend Division

• The Spanish phenom
• The American contender
• The Australian speedster
• Lorenzo Musetti (It)

Swedish icon Group

• The Italian champion
• The German powerhouse
• Ben Shelton (US)
• Félix Auger-Aliassime (Can)

“I’d probably dwell on it indefinitely if I fail to do it,” the American told a journalist in the summer of winning a major. It is hoped 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 extremely unlikely for everybody else. {