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I have a few opinions regarding the comments made by the sports network broadcaster a well-known announcer after the Serbian champion's victory over Taylor Fritz during the US Open quarter-finals. Consider – the athlete represents American, Fowler is American – and athletic competitions often lend themselves to patriotic sentiment. A little bit of disappointment would have been understandable. Rather, he brought up the continued drought of US male players at the majors: not one of them has won a trophy since the last American champion in 2003, and he had been the last one standing in the tournament.

Everyone love a narrative, myself included. But come on. Even if the American defeated the legend for the first time, force of nature Carlos Alcaraz was waiting in the following match, who Fritz has never defeated in an official match. And if he’d somehow survived that, it would have been defending champion the Italian, against whom Fritz had lost 10 of the previous eleven sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also split the previous seven grand slams (plus Alcaraz went on to thrash a tired Serbian in the subsequent match). Fritz stated in post-match interviews after the loss that he actually preferred his path, because it presented the chance to beat the top three players in the world back-to-back. He is more than within his right to aspire to the achievement; an competitor is supposed to have faith in themselves. But going into that Djokovic quarter-final who else sensibly had the drought of US winners in mind?

Coco Gauff’s weaker delivery the only thing standing in her way and consistent victories

Fritz, 28, is placed fourth in the world entering this week’s year-end championships and has secured his previous six matches over third-ranked the German with growing comfort. It's likely he could claim that position for himself in the future. But it’s clear that at present, that is as high as he can rise: The Italian and Spaniard sit a chasm of performance metrics away. His top-class serve and powerful power on both forehand and reverse side are more than adequate to dispose of most opponents on the professional circuit. Against the handful of generational talents, though, Fritz is often overmatched. The last several years has witnessed the curious rise of tall, gangly players who can nevertheless move around with the surprising quickness and fluidity of smaller men. Fritz is 6ft 5ins and looks it. His movement is rigid, as if he hasn't fully adapted to his limbs. So he’ll rarely win a rally that the other player was controlling, and hitting a drop shot versus him is typically a reliable tactic. That serves as a quite harsh restriction on his upside.

Fritz has achieved a several significant, unexpected advancements throughout his career. Early on of the decade, he was hovering around the lower end of the top 30. Two years later, he was approaching the top 10. The previous season, he suddenly exploded up to No 4 – and maintained the spot. But the next leap, mixing it up with and beating all-time-greats like Alcaraz, Sinner, and even a aging Serbian, is the toughest of all. What was 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 drought of US male players winning grand slams when he had exited the US Open in the quarter-finals? The desperation is just excessive and the appreciation for the difficulty of the challenge insufficient.

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

Fritz’s play in that exact last eight match ought to have been sufficient of an indication. The Serbian won in four rounds, a win that only felt uncertain for brief periods towards the very end, when the American had survived a couple championship opportunities and had a opportunity to hold for 5-5. The pair looked evenly matched during the rallies, with Fritz creating plenty of chances to win the opponent's serve. But Djokovic saved break point after service break opportunity, extending the streak to the point of frustration. When Fritz finally did claim one of the chances at 5-5 in the second set, he promptly produced a terrible game to drop serve once more; the Serbian had lulled him into a battle peripheral to the main contest and forced him to use far too much energy to win it. Facing set points in the final game, his primary delivery sailed to heaven. He extended the match twice on his second serve, but finally double-faulted. It was not a collapse, I didn’t think, just a consequence of having to hit an excessive number of weaker deliveries.

The match was fairly ironclad proof that Fritz is insufficiently skilled to beat any version of the Serbian, that lost to Alcaraz in the following match and never particularly seem like he believed he could triumph. This is absolutely fine – the Serbian is the best player ever, and might not be at the height of his athletic abilities anymore, but has acquired enough experience and strategic intelligence to compensate for quite a bit of the decline. The problem is those who were anticipating the American to prevail, and pressuring him to do so, when he was had not accomplished anything that indicated he could.

The American is an asset to the tour nonetheless. He’s a calm, reflective presence in press conferences, more so than almost everyone on the men's tour aside from Daniil Medvedev, willing to not only say his emotions or the tactic he believed determined a contest, but explain it. That he should bear the brunt of the responsibility for the United States not spawn a male major champion since Andy Roddick seems unfair. (Since the fellow American is competing alongside him in the rankings, perhaps they can divide that load.)

ATP Finals: Player Divisions

American legend Group

• The Spanish phenom
• Taylor Fritz (US)
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• Lorenzo Musetti (It)

Swedish icon Division

• Jannik Sinner (It)
• The German powerhouse
• The rising American
• The Canadian talent

“I’d probably think about it indefinitely if I fail to accomplish it,” Fritz informed a journalist in the summer of claiming a major. I hope he realizes that he’s not unsuccessful if he does not achieve that objective, that breaking through the Spanish and Italian's dominant, formidable reign is actually extremely improbable for all other players. {