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I possess a few opinions regarding the remarks delivered by ESPN commentator Chris Fowler following the Serbian champion's win over the American player in the New York major last eight. Look – the athlete represents the United States, Fowler is American – and athletic competitions often lend themselves to patriotic sentiment. A little bit of letdown was understandable. Rather, Fowler 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 he had been the last one standing in the competition.

We all love a narrative, me too. But really. Even if the American defeated the legend for the initial occasion, phenomenal talent Carlos Alcaraz was looming in the following match, who he has never defeated in an competitive encounter. And if he’d somehow survived that, it would have been title holder the Italian, against whom Fritz had dropped 10 of the previous eleven sets. The two young stars had also divided the last seven major titles (and Alcaraz went on to defeat a tired Serbian in the subsequent match). He stated in post-match interviews following his defeat that he actually preferred his draw, because it offered the opportunity to defeat the top three competitors in the world back-to-back. Fritz is more than within his right to aspire to the achievement; an athlete is supposed to have faith in themselves. But going into that Djokovic last eight match who else sensibly had the lack of US winners on the brain?

Coco Gauff’s second serve the sole barrier between her and consistent victories

Fritz, twenty-eight, is ranked fourth in the global rankings starting this week’s year-end championships and has secured his last six matches over No 3 Alexander Zverev with increasing ease. Presumably he could take that spot for himself in the coming years. But evidently that at present, that’s as high as he can rise: Sinner and Alcaraz sit a vast gap of ranking points away. His elite delivery and powerful power on each forehand and reverse side are more than enough to dispose of most rivals on the professional circuit. Against the handful of once-in-a-lifetime players, however, Fritz is frequently overmatched. The past few years has seen the curious emergence of tall, gangly athletes who can nevertheless move around with the alarming speed and fluidity of smaller players. Fritz is six-foot-five and appears that way. His movement is stiff, as if he hasn't fully adapted to his legs. So he seldom win a rally that the other player was controlling, and hitting a soft shot against him is typically a safe bet. That acts as a pretty severe limitation on his upside.

Fritz has made a several dramatic, unexpected improvements over the years. At the beginning of the ten-year period, he was hovering around the bottom of the world's best thirty. Two years after, he was sniffing the top 10. Last year, he unexpectedly exploded to fourth place – and held the spot. But the subsequent step, mixing it up with and defeating all-time-greats like the young Spaniard, the Italian, and even a aging Serbian, is the highest of all. What could Fowler have been thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a serious threat to beat them all back-to-back? That it was worth commenting on the continuing drought of US male players lifting grand slams when he had exited the US Open in the quarter-finals? The desperation is just excessive and the respect for the difficulty of the challenge too little.

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

The American's play in that very last eight match ought to have been enough of an sign. Djokovic triumphed in four sets, a win that only felt uncertain for brief periods towards the very end, when Fritz had saved a few championship opportunities and had a opportunity to maintain serve for 5-5. The duo looked well-balanced during the exchanges, with the American creating numerous chances to break. But the champion saved break point after service break opportunity, extending the streak to the brink of frustration. When he eventually did convert a single of the opportunities at 5-5 in the second set, he immediately produced a terrible game to lose his own serve once more; the Serbian had lulled him into a skirmish secondary to the main contest and forced him to use far too much energy to win it. Facing match points in the final game, his primary delivery floated to heaven. He prolonged the contest two times on his second serve, but finally double-faulted. It wasn’t a collapse, in my opinion, just a consequence of having to hit too many second serves.

The contest was quite ironclad evidence that the American is insufficiently skilled to defeat any version of Djokovic, who lost to Alcaraz in the following match and did not especially appeared like he believed he could win. This is absolutely fine – Djokovic is the best player ever, and may not be at the peak of his physical powers anymore, but has acquired sufficient experience and tactical know-how to compensate for a significant portion of the decline. The issue is those who were anticipating the American to win, and pressuring him to do so, when he was yet to accomplished anything that suggested he could.

The American is an asset to the tour regardless. He’s a patient, thoughtful presence in press conferences, more so than virtually anyone on the ATP aside from Daniil Medvedev, willing to not only express how he feels or the strategy he felt determined a contest, but clarify it. That he should bear the brunt of the responsibility for the United States not produce a male major champion since Andy Roddick feels unjust. (Since the fellow American is competing alongside him in the standings, maybe they can divide that burden.)

ATP Finals: Singles Groups

Jimmy Connors Division

• Carlos Alcaraz (Sp)
• Taylor Fritz (US)
• The Australian speedster
• Lorenzo Musetti (It)

Swedish icon Group

• The Italian champion
• The German powerhouse
• Ben Shelton (US)
• Félix Auger-Aliassime (Can)

“I’d probably think about it indefinitely if I fail to do it,” Fritz told a journalist in June of claiming a grand slam. I hope he understands that he’s not unsuccessful if he doesn’t fulfill that goal, that overcoming Alcaraz and Sinner’s dominant, formidable reign is in fact highly unlikely for everybody else. {