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I have some thoughts regarding the remarks made by ESPN broadcaster a well-known announcer after the Serbian champion's win over Taylor Fritz during the New York major quarter-finals. Consider – Fritz is the United States, the commentator is from the US – and sports often encourage patriotic sentiment. A little bit of disappointment would have been appropriate. Rather, Fowler brought up the ongoing drought of US male players at the majors: none of them has won a trophy since the last American champion in 2003, and he had been the last one standing in the competition.

We all enjoy a storyline, me too. But really. Even if Fritz defeated Djokovic for the first time, force of nature Carlos Alcaraz was looming in the next round, who he has yet to beat in an competitive encounter. And if he’d somehow survived that, it would have been defending champion the Italian, against whom Fritz had dropped 10 of the previous eleven sets. The two young stars had also split the last seven grand slams (plus the Spaniard went on to thrash a fatigued Djokovic in the subsequent match). Fritz stated in post-match interviews following his defeat that he in fact preferred his path, because it offered the opportunity to defeat the three best players in the sport back-to-back. He is more than within his right to aspire to the achievement; an athlete is meant to have faith in themselves. But going into that Djokovic quarter-final what other person sensibly had the drought of American champions in mind?

The American star's weaker delivery the only thing standing in her way and sustained success

The American, twenty-eight, is ranked fourth in the global rankings entering the upcoming ATP World Tour Finals and has won his last six encounters over No 3 the German with increasing ease. It's likely he might take that spot for himself in the future. But evidently that right now, that’s as high as he can rise: Sinner and Alcaraz lie a vast gap of performance metrics away. His elite serve and powerful strength on each forehand and backhand are more than enough to dispose of the majority of rivals on the ATP tour. Against the select few generational talents, though, Fritz is frequently helpless. The last several seasons has seen the interesting emergence of tall, gangly athletes who can nevertheless move around with the alarming speed and grace of much shorter men. He is 6ft 5ins 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 dictating, and hitting a drop shot versus him is usually a safe bet. That serves as a pretty severe restriction on his potential.

Fritz has achieved a several dramatic, unexpected improvements throughout his career. Early on of the decade, he was hovering around the lower end of the world's best thirty. 24 months after, he was sniffing the top 10. Last year, he unexpectedly surged to fourth place – and held the spot. But the subsequent step, mixing it up with and beating legendary figures like Alcaraz, the Italian, and even a declining Serbian, is the toughest of all. What could Fowler have been thinking? That Fritz, in 2025, was a serious threat to defeat them all back-to-back? That it was worth commenting on the ongoing slump 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 appreciation for the difficulty of the task too little.

The American star made a career-best advancement to the Wimbledon last four in the summer.

The American's play in that exact last eight match should have been sufficient of an indication. Djokovic won in four rounds, a win that only seemed tenuous for brief periods towards the conclusion, when Fritz had saved a few match points and had a chance to maintain serve for 5-5. The duo looked well-balanced during the exchanges, with the American creating plenty of chances to win the opponent's serve. But the champion saved service break opportunity after service break opportunity, extending the run to the point of agony. When Fritz finally did claim one of the chances at 5-5 in the middle stanza, he immediately produced a horrendous service game to drop serve once more; Djokovic had drawn him into a battle secondary to the main contest and compelled him to use excessive effort to win it. Down match points in the final game, Fritz’s first serve floated to the sky. He extended the contest twice on his second serve, but ultimately double-faulted. It wasn’t a collapse, I didn’t think, just a result of needing to hit an excessive number of weaker deliveries.

The contest was quite ironclad proof that the American is insufficiently skilled to beat any version of Djokovic, that lost to Alcaraz in the following match and never particularly appeared like he believed he could triumph. This is absolutely fine – the Serbian is the greatest of all time, and might not be at the height of his physical powers anymore, but has acquired enough knowledge and strategic intelligence to make up for quite a bit of the drop-off. The issue is those who were anticipating Fritz to win, and pressuring him to achieve that, when he was had not done anything that indicated he would.

Fritz is an valuable contributor to the circuit regardless. He’s a patient, reflective voice in media sessions, exceeding almost anyone on the ATP except for Daniil Medvedev, prepared to not only say how he feels or the strategy he felt determined a match, but clarify it. That he ought to shoulder the majority of the blame for the United States failing to produce a men's grand slam winner since the last American titlist seems unfair. (Now that the fellow American is rubbing shoulders with him in the rankings, maybe they can share that burden.)

Year-End Championships: Singles Groups

Jimmy Connors Division

• The Spanish phenom
• The American contender
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• The Italian stylist

Bjorn Borg Group

• The Italian champion
• The German powerhouse
• The rising American
• The Canadian talent

“I’d probably dwell on it forever if I fail to do it,” Fritz told an interviewer in the summer of winning a major. I hope he understands that he’s not a failure if he does not achieve that goal, that breaking through Alcaraz and Sinner’s dominant, formidable reign is actually highly unlikely for all other players. {