🔗 Share this article

I have a few thoughts regarding that remarks made by ESPN commentator Chris Fowler after Novak Djokovic's victory over Taylor Fritz in the New York major quarter-finals. Consider – the athlete represents American, Fowler is from the US – and athletic competitions often encourage nationalism. A little bit of disappointment would have been appropriate. Rather, he brought up the continued drought of US male players at the majors: not one of them has won a trophy since Andy Roddick in 2003, and he had been the final representative in the tournament.

We all love a narrative, me too. But come on. Even if Fritz had beaten the legend for the first time, phenomenal talent Carlos Alcaraz was looming in the next round, whom he has never defeated in an competitive encounter. And had he somehow gotten past that, it would have been title holder the Italian, versus him the American had lost 10 of the previous eleven sets. The two young stars had also split the last seven grand slams (and Alcaraz went on to thrash a tired Djokovic in the subsequent match). He said in press following his defeat that he actually preferred his path, because it offered the chance to beat the three best players in the world back-to-back. He is well within his right to aspire to the accomplishment; an competitor is meant to believe in themselves. But entering that Serbian quarter-final who else in their right mind had the lack of American champions on the brain?

The American star's second serve the only thing standing in her way and sustained success

Fritz, twenty-eight, is ranked fourth in the global rankings starting this week’s year-end championships and has secured his last six encounters over No 3 Alexander Zverev with growing comfort. It's likely he could claim that position for himself in the future. But evidently that right now, that’s as far as he can rise: The Italian and Spaniard sit a vast gap of performance metrics away. Fritz’s top-class serve and powerful strength on both forehand and reverse side are sufficiently enough to defeat most rivals on the ATP tour. Against the handful of once-in-a-lifetime players, however, Fritz is frequently overmatched. The last several years has seen the curious rise of lanky, towering athletes who can nonetheless cover the court with the surprising quickness and fluidity of much shorter players. He is six-foot-five 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 opponent was controlling, and playing a soft shot versus him is usually a reliable tactic. That serves as a quite severe restriction on his upside.

The American has made a several significant, improbable advancements over the years. At the beginning of the ten-year period, he was circling the bottom of the world's best thirty. 24 months later, he was approaching the top 10. The previous season, he suddenly exploded up to No 4 – and held the spot. But the next leap, competing against and defeating legendary figures like the young Spaniard, Sinner, and even a declining Serbian, is the highest of all. What was Fowler have been thinking? That Fritz, in 2025, was a serious threat to beat them all back-to-back? That it was appropriate commenting on the continuing slump of American men lifting major titles when he had departed the US Open in the quarter-finals? The desperation is simply too much and the appreciation for the magnitude of the challenge insufficient.

The American star achieved a career-best advancement to the All England Club last four in July.

The American's performance in that very quarter-final should have been sufficient of an sign. The Serbian won in four rounds, a win that only felt tenuous for moments towards the very end, when the American had saved a few championship opportunities and had a chance to hold for 5-5. The duo appeared evenly matched during the rallies, with Fritz 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 brink of agony. When he finally did convert a single of the chances at 5-5 in the second set, he immediately produced a terrible service game to drop serve once more; the Serbian had drawn him into a battle secondary to the real battle and compelled him to use excessive energy to win it. Facing set points in the last game, his primary delivery floated to heaven. He prolonged the contest two times on his second serve, but ultimately double-faulted. It wasn’t a collapse, I didn’t think, only a result of having to hit an excessive number of weaker deliveries.

The contest was quite ironclad proof that Fritz is not good enough to beat any version of Djokovic, that was defeated by Alcaraz in the following match and never especially seem like he thought he could win. This is perfectly acceptable – Djokovic is the greatest of all time, and may not be at the height of his athletic abilities now, but has developed sufficient experience and tactical know-how to make up for quite a bit of the decline. The problem is those who were anticipating the American to win, and putting pressure on him to do so, when he was had not accomplished anything that suggested he would.

Fritz is an valuable contributor to the circuit regardless. He’s a patient, reflective presence in press conferences, exceeding almost anyone on the men's tour aside from Daniil Medvedev, willing to not just express how he feels or the strategy he believed determined a match, but explain it. That he ought to shoulder the majority of the responsibility 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 divide that burden.)

Year-End Championships: Player Divisions

Jimmy Connors Division

• Carlos Alcaraz (Sp)
• Taylor Fritz (US)
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• Lorenzo Musetti (It)

Swedish icon Group

• Jannik Sinner (It)
• The German powerhouse
• Ben Shelton (US)
• Félix Auger-Aliassime (Can)

“I’d probably think about it forever if I fail to accomplish it,” the American told a journalist in the summer of claiming a major. It is hoped he realizes that he’s not unsuccessful if he doesn’t fulfill that goal, that overcoming the Spanish and Italian's young, terrifying empire is actually extremely improbable for everybody else. {