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I have a few thoughts regarding the comments made by ESPN commentator Chris Fowler following the Serbian champion's win over Taylor Fritz during the US Open quarter-finals. Consider – the athlete represents American, Fowler is American – and sports often encourage patriotic sentiment. A little bit of disappointment would have been understandable. Rather, Fowler brought up the continued drought of American men at grand slam tournaments: none of them had lifted a trophy since Andy Roddick in 2003, and Fritz had been the last one standing in the competition.

Everyone enjoy a storyline, myself included. But come on. Suppose the American had beaten the legend for the first time, phenomenal talent the Spanish star was looming in the following match, who he has never defeated in an competitive encounter. And if he’d someway gotten past that, it would have been title holder the Italian, versus him the American had lost 10 of the last 11 sets. The two young stars had also split the last seven grand slams (and Alcaraz proceeded to defeat a tired Djokovic in the next round). He stated in press after the loss that he in fact preferred his path, because it presented the chance to beat the three best players in the sport back-to-back. He is well within his right to aim for the accomplishment; an athlete is supposed to believe in themselves. But entering that Djokovic last eight match who else in their right mind had the drought of US winners in mind?

The American star's second serve the only thing standing in her way and consistent victories

Fritz, 28, is placed number four in the world starting the upcoming year-end championships and has secured his previous six matches over No 3 the German with increasing ease. Presumably he could take that spot for himself in the future. But evidently that at present, that’s as high as he can rise: The Italian and Spaniard sit a vast gap of performance metrics away. Fritz’s top-class serve and concussive power on each forehand and reverse side are sufficiently adequate to defeat most opponents on the professional circuit. Against the handful of once-in-a-lifetime players, though, he is often helpless. The last several years has witnessed the interesting emergence of lanky, towering athletes who can nevertheless cover the court with the alarming quickness and fluidity of smaller players. Fritz is six-foot-five and looks it. His footwork is rigid, as if he’s still getting used to his limbs. So he’ll rarely steal a point that the opponent was dictating, and playing a soft shot against him is usually a safe bet. That serves as a quite harsh restriction on his upside.

Fritz has achieved a several dramatic, improbable improvements throughout his career. At the beginning of the ten-year period, he was circling the lower end of the world's best thirty. 24 months later, he was sniffing the top 10. Last year, he suddenly surged to fourth place – and maintained the spot. But the subsequent step, competing against and defeating legendary figures like the young Spaniard, the Italian, and even a aging Djokovic, is the highest of all. What could Fowler thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a serious threat to defeat them all back-to-back? That it was worth commenting on the continuing drought of US male players winning major titles when he had exited the New York major in the quarter-finals? The thirst is just excessive and the respect for the difficulty of the challenge too little.

Taylor Fritz achieved a personal best run to the All England Club semi-finals in the summer.

Fritz’s performance in that exact last eight match ought to have been sufficient of an indication. Djokovic won in four rounds, a victory that only felt uncertain for brief periods towards the conclusion, when Fritz had saved a couple match points and had a opportunity to maintain serve for 5-5. The pair appeared evenly matched during the exchanges, with Fritz earning numerous chances to win the opponent's serve. But Djokovic saved service break opportunity after service break opportunity, extending the run to the point of frustration. When he finally did claim a single of the opportunities at 5-5 in the second set, he immediately produced a terrible game to drop serve again; Djokovic had lulled him into a skirmish peripheral to the real battle and forced him to use excessive energy to win it. Facing match points in the last game, Fritz’s first serve floated to the sky. He prolonged the match twice on his backup delivery, but ultimately committed two errors. It wasn’t a collapse, I didn’t think, only a consequence of needing to hit too many weaker deliveries.

The contest was fairly compelling proof that Fritz is not good enough to defeat any version of Djokovic, who lost to the Spaniard in the following match and never particularly seem like he thought he could win. This is perfectly fine – the Serbian is the best player ever, and might not be at the height of his athletic abilities anymore, but has acquired enough knowledge and tactical know-how to make up for a significant portion of the drop-off. The issue is the individuals who were expecting the American to prevail, and putting pressure on him to do so, when he was yet to accomplished anything that suggested he would.

Fritz is an asset to the circuit nonetheless. He’s a patient, reflective presence in press conferences, more so than virtually everyone 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 ought to shoulder the majority of the blame for the United States not spawn a male major champion since Andy Roddick seems unfair. (Now that Ben Shelton is competing alongside 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

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 accomplish it,” Fritz told a journalist in June of winning a grand slam. I hope he realizes that he’s not a failure if he does not achieve that objective, that breaking through the Spanish and Italian's young, terrifying empire is actually extremely unlikely for everybody else. {