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I possess a few thoughts about that comments delivered by ESPN commentator Chris Fowler after the Serbian champion's win over the American player in the US Open quarter-finals. Consider – Fritz is the United States, the commentator is from the US – and athletic competitions often lend themselves to nationalism. A little bit of letdown would have been understandable. Rather, Fowler invoked the ongoing absence of US male players at the majors: none of them had lifted a title since the last American champion in 2003, and Fritz had been the last one standing in the competition.

We all love a narrative, myself included. But really. Even if the American defeated Djokovic for the initial occasion, force of nature the Spanish star was waiting in the following match, who he has yet to beat in an official match. And if he’d somehow survived that, it would have been defending champion Jannik Sinner, against whom Fritz had lost 10 of the previous eleven sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also divided the previous seven major titles (plus the Spaniard went on to defeat a tired Serbian in the next round). He stated in post-match interviews following his defeat that he actually preferred his path, because it presented the opportunity to defeat the top three players in the world back-to-back. Fritz is more than justified to aim for the achievement; an athlete is meant to believe in themselves. But entering that Djokovic quarter-final who else sensibly had the lack of US winners in mind?

The American star's weaker delivery the sole barrier standing in her way and sustained success

The American, twenty-eight, is ranked number four in the world starting the upcoming ATP World Tour Finals and has won his previous six matches over third-ranked Alexander Zverev with growing comfort. It's likely he could take that spot for himself in the coming years. But evidently that right now, that’s as high as he can climb: Sinner and Alcaraz sit a chasm of performance metrics away. Fritz’s elite serve and powerful strength on both forehand and backhand are sufficiently enough to dispose of the majority of opponents on the professional circuit. Against the handful of once-in-a-lifetime players, however, Fritz is frequently helpless. The last several seasons has witnessed the interesting rise of lanky, towering players who can nonetheless move around with the surprising quickness and grace of much shorter players. He is 6ft 5ins and appears that way. His movement is stiff, as if he hasn't fully adapted to his limbs. So he seldom steal a point that the opponent was controlling, and hitting a soft shot versus him is usually a reliable tactic. That serves as a pretty severe restriction on his potential.

Fritz has achieved a number of significant, improbable improvements throughout his career. At the beginning of the decade, he was hovering around the lower end of the top 30. Two years later, he was approaching the top 10. Last year, he unexpectedly surged to No 4 – and maintained the spot. But the subsequent step, mixing it up with and beating legendary figures like the young Spaniard, the Italian, and even a declining Djokovic, is the highest of all. What could the commentator thinking? That Fritz, in 2025, was a serious threat to defeat them all back-to-back? That it was worth mentioning the ongoing slump of US male players lifting major titles when he had departed the US Open in the quarter-finals? The thirst is simply too much and the respect for the difficulty of the task too little.

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

The American's play in that exact quarter-final should have been sufficient of an indication. Djokovic won in four rounds, a victory that only seemed tenuous for brief periods towards the conclusion, when the American had saved a few match points and had a chance to hold for 5-5. The pair looked evenly matched during the exchanges, with the American earning plenty of opportunities to break. But the champion saved service break opportunity after service break opportunity, prolonging the streak to the brink of agony. When Fritz finally did claim one of the chances at 5-5 in the middle stanza, he promptly played a terrible game to lose his own serve again; the Serbian had drawn him into a battle peripheral to the main contest and forced him to use excessive effort to win it. Facing match points in the final game, his first serve floated to heaven. He extended the contest two times on his backup delivery, but finally committed two errors. It was not a collapse, in my opinion, only a result of having to hit an excessive number of weaker deliveries.

The match was quite compelling proof that Fritz is not good enough to beat any version of the Serbian, that lost to Alcaraz in the next round and did not especially appeared like he believed he could win. This is perfectly fine – Djokovic is the greatest of all time, and might not be at the peak of his athletic abilities anymore, but has developed sufficient knowledge and strategic intelligence to make up for quite a bit of the drop-off. The problem is those who were expecting Fritz to win, and putting pressure on him to do so, when he was had not done anything that indicated he would.

Fritz is an valuable contributor to the tour regardless. He’s a patient, thoughtful presence 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 determined a contest, but clarify it. That he should bear the brunt of the responsibility for America failing to spawn a male major champion since the last American titlist feels unjust. (Now that Ben Shelton is rubbing shoulders with him in the rankings, perhaps they can share that burden.)

Year-End Championships: Player Divisions

American legend Group

• Carlos Alcaraz (Sp)
• The American contender
• The Australian speedster
• Lorenzo Musetti (It)

Bjorn Borg Group

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

“I would likely dwell on it forever if I don’t do it,” the American informed an interviewer in the summer of winning a major. I hope he understands that he’s not a failure if he doesn’t achieve that goal, that breaking through Alcaraz and Sinner’s dominant, formidable empire is in fact extremely improbable for all other players. {