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I possess a few opinions regarding that comments delivered by the sports network broadcaster a well-known announcer following the Serbian champion's victory over Taylor Fritz during the New York major quarter-finals. Consider – the athlete represents the United States, the commentator is from the US – and sports frequently encourage patriotic sentiment. A little bit of disappointment was appropriate. Instead, he invoked the continued absence of US male players at grand slam tournaments: not one of them has won a trophy since Andy Roddick in 2003, and Fritz had been the final representative in the competition.

We all enjoy a storyline, me too. But come on. 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 never defeated in an competitive encounter. And if he’d somehow gotten past that, it would have been defending champion Jannik Sinner, against whom the American had lost 10 of the previous eleven sets. The two young stars had also split the last seven major titles (plus the Spaniard proceeded to thrash a tired Djokovic in the next round). He stated in post-match interviews after the loss that he in fact preferred his draw, because it presented the opportunity to beat the top three players in the world in succession. He is well within his right to aspire to the achievement; an athlete is meant to believe in themselves. But entering that Djokovic quarter-final who else in their right mind had the drought of American champions in mind?

Coco Gauff’s second serve the only thing standing in her way and sustained success

The American, twenty-eight, is ranked number four in the world entering this week’s ATP World Tour Finals and has secured his previous six matches over No 3 Alexander Zverev with growing comfort. Presumably he might claim that position for himself in the future. But evidently that right now, that is as far as he can climb: Sinner and Alcaraz lie a vast gap of ranking points away. His top-class delivery and powerful strength on both forehand and backhand are sufficiently adequate to defeat the majority of opponents on the ATP tour. Against the handful of generational talents, however, he is frequently overmatched. The past few seasons has witnessed the interesting rise of tall, gangly athletes who can nevertheless move around with the surprising speed and fluidity of much shorter men. Fritz is 6ft 5ins and looks it. His footwork is stiff, as if he’s still getting used to his limbs. So he seldom win a rally that the other player was dictating, and hitting a drop shot versus him is typically a reliable tactic. That serves as a quite harsh restriction on his potential.

The American has achieved a several significant, improbable advancements throughout his career. At the beginning of the ten-year period, he was hovering around the lower end of the world's best thirty. 24 months after, he was approaching the elite ten. Last year, he suddenly surged to No 4 – and maintained the spot. But the subsequent step, competing against and beating all-time-greats like the young Spaniard, Sinner, and even a aging Serbian, is the highest of all. What was Fowler have been thinking? That Fritz, in 2025, was a serious threat to defeat them all back-to-back? That it was appropriate mentioning the ongoing slump of US male players winning grand slams when Fritz had exited the New York major in the quarter-finals? The thirst is simply too much and the respect for the difficulty of the challenge insufficient.

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

Fritz’s play in that very quarter-final should have been sufficient of an sign. The Serbian won in four sets, a win that only seemed tenuous for brief periods towards the conclusion, when Fritz had survived a couple match points and had a opportunity to hold for 5-5. The duo looked evenly matched during the exchanges, with the American creating plenty of opportunities to break. But Djokovic saved break point after break point, prolonging the streak to the brink of frustration. When Fritz finally did claim a single of the opportunities at 5-5 in the second set, he promptly produced a horrendous game to drop serve again; the Serbian had drawn him into a skirmish peripheral to the main contest and forced him to expend excessive effort to win it. Down set points in the final game, Fritz’s primary delivery floated to heaven. He extended the match twice on his second serve, but finally committed two errors. It was not a collapse, in my opinion, just a result of needing to hit an excessive number of weaker deliveries.

The contest was quite ironclad evidence that the American is insufficiently skilled to beat any version of Djokovic, that was defeated by the Spaniard in the following match and never especially seem like he believed he could win. This is absolutely fine – the Serbian is the best player ever, and might not be at the height of his athletic abilities now, but has developed enough experience and strategic intelligence to make up for quite a bit of the decline. The issue is those who were expecting Fritz to prevail, and putting pressure on him to achieve that, when he was yet to done anything that suggested he could.

The American is an valuable contributor to the tour nonetheless. He’s a calm, thoughtful voice in media sessions, exceeding almost anyone on the ATP except for the Russian star, willing to not only say his emotions or the strategy he believed determined a match, but explain it. That he ought to bear the brunt of the blame for America failing to spawn a men's grand slam winner since the last American titlist seems unfair. (Since the fellow American is rubbing shoulders with him in the rankings, perhaps they can share that burden.)

Year-End Championships: Player Divisions

Jimmy Connors Group

• Carlos Alcaraz (Sp)
• 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 would likely think about it indefinitely if I don’t do it,” Fritz informed a journalist in June of claiming a grand slam. It is hoped he understands that he’s not a failure if he doesn’t achieve that goal, that overcoming the Spanish and Italian's dominant, formidable empire is in fact highly unlikely for everybody else. {