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I have a few thoughts regarding the remarks made by the sports network broadcaster a well-known announcer following Novak Djokovic's win over the American player in the US Open last eight. Look – the athlete represents American, Fowler is from the US – and sports often lend themselves to patriotic sentiment. A little bit of letdown would have been understandable. Instead, Fowler invoked the continued drought of American men at the majors: not one of them has won a trophy since the last American champion in 2003, and he had been the final representative in the tournament.

Everyone enjoy a narrative, me too. But come on. Even if the American defeated the legend for the first time, force of nature Carlos Alcaraz was looming in the following match, whom Fritz has never defeated in an official match. And if he’d somehow gotten past that, it would have been defending champion Jannik Sinner, against whom the American had dropped 10 of the last 11 sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also divided the last seven grand slams (and Alcaraz went on to defeat a fatigued Djokovic in the subsequent match). He stated in post-match interviews after the loss that he actually preferred his draw, because it presented the chance to beat the three best players in the world back-to-back. He is more than justified to aim for the accomplishment; an competitor is supposed to believe in themselves. But going into that Djokovic last eight match what other person sensibly had the drought of US winners on the brain?

Coco Gauff’s weaker delivery the only thing standing in her way and sustained success

Fritz, twenty-eight, is ranked number four in the world entering this week’s ATP World Tour Finals and has secured his last six encounters over third-ranked Alexander Zverev with growing comfort. Presumably he could take that spot for himself in the coming years. But evidently that at present, that’s as high as he can climb: Sinner and Alcaraz lie a chasm of performance metrics away. His elite delivery and powerful strength on each front side and backhand are sufficiently adequate to defeat most rivals on the professional circuit. Against the select few once-in-a-lifetime players, though, Fritz is often overmatched. The past few seasons has witnessed the interesting emergence of tall, gangly players who can nonetheless cover the court with the surprising quickness and grace of smaller players. He is 6ft 5ins and looks it. His movement is stiff, as if he’s still getting used to his legs. So he’ll rarely steal a point that the opponent was controlling, and hitting a drop shot versus him is usually a safe bet. That acts as a pretty harsh limitation on his potential.

Fritz has achieved a several significant, unexpected improvements throughout his career. At the beginning of the ten-year period, he was hovering around the bottom of the top 30. Two years after, he was approaching the top 10. Last year, he suddenly surged to fourth place – and maintained the position. But the subsequent step, mixing it up with and defeating all-time-greats like the young Spaniard, Sinner, and including a aging Serbian, is the highest of all. What was Fowler thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a serious threat to defeat them all back-to-back? That it was appropriate commenting on the ongoing drought of US male players winning major titles when he had departed the US Open in the quarter-finals? The thirst is just too much and the respect for the magnitude of the challenge insufficient.

The American star made a career-best advancement to the All England Club semi-finals in July.

Fritz’s play in that very last eight match ought to have been enough of an sign. The Serbian won in four rounds, a win that only seemed uncertain for brief periods towards the conclusion, when the American had saved a couple match points and had a chance to maintain serve for 5-5. The duo appeared well-balanced during the rallies, with Fritz earning plenty of opportunities to win the opponent's serve. But Djokovic saved break point after service break opportunity, prolonging the streak to the brink of agony. When he finally did convert one of the opportunities at 5-5 in the second set, he immediately played a terrible game to drop serve again; Djokovic had lulled him into a skirmish secondary to the real battle and forced him to use far too much effort to win it. Down set points in the last game, Fritz’s primary delivery sailed to heaven. He extended the match twice on his second serve, but ultimately committed two errors. It was not a collapse, I didn’t think, only a consequence of having to hit an excessive number of weaker deliveries.

The match was fairly ironclad evidence that Fritz is insufficiently skilled to defeat any version of Djokovic, that was defeated by the Spaniard in the following match and never especially seem like he believed he could triumph. This is perfectly acceptable – the Serbian is the best player ever, and might not be at the height of his athletic abilities now, but has acquired sufficient knowledge and tactical know-how to make up for quite a bit of the decline. The issue is the individuals who were anticipating Fritz to win, and pressuring him to achieve that, when he was yet to accomplished anything that indicated he could.

The American is an asset to the circuit nonetheless. He’s a calm, thoughtful voice in press conferences, more so than almost everyone on the men's tour except for the Russian star, prepared to not only say how he feels or the strategy he felt decided a contest, but explain it. That he ought to bear the brunt of the responsibility for the United States not spawn a men's grand slam winner since Andy Roddick seems unfair. (Since the fellow American is rubbing shoulders with him in the rankings, maybe they can share that load.)

Year-End Championships: Player Divisions

American legend Division

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

Swedish icon Division

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

“I would likely think about it forever if I fail to do it,” Fritz informed a journalist in June of winning a major. I hope he understands that he’s not a failure if he doesn’t achieve that objective, that overcoming Alcaraz and Sinner’s young, terrifying empire is actually highly improbable for everybody else. {