🔗 Share this article

I have a few thoughts regarding the remarks delivered by the sports network commentator a well-known announcer after the Serbian champion's victory over the American player in the US Open quarter-finals. Look – Fritz is American, the commentator is American – and athletic competitions frequently encourage patriotic sentiment. Some disappointment was appropriate. Rather, he invoked the ongoing absence of US male players at the majors: none of them had lifted a trophy since the last American champion in 2003, and Fritz had been the final representative in the tournament.

Everyone enjoy a storyline, myself included. But come on. Suppose Fritz had beaten Djokovic for the first time, force of nature the Spanish star was waiting in the next round, who he has yet to beat in an official match. And if he’d someway survived that, it would have been defending champion the Italian, versus him Fritz had dropped 10 of the last 11 sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also split the last seven grand slams (plus Alcaraz went on to thrash a tired Serbian in the next round). He said in post-match interviews following his defeat that he in fact liked his path, because it offered the chance to defeat the three best players in the sport back-to-back. He is more than justified to aim for the achievement; an athlete is supposed to have faith in themselves. But going into that Djokovic quarter-final who else in their right mind had the drought of American champions on the brain?

The American star's weaker delivery the only thing standing in her way and consistent victories

Fritz, twenty-eight, is placed fourth in the world entering this week’s year-end championships and has secured his previous six matches over third-ranked Alexander Zverev with increasing ease. Presumably he might take that spot for himself in the coming years. But it’s clear that at present, that is as high as he can climb: The Italian and Spaniard lie a vast gap of performance metrics away. Fritz’s elite delivery and powerful strength on both forehand and backhand are more than adequate to defeat most opponents on the ATP tour. Against the handful of once-in-a-lifetime players, though, Fritz is often helpless. The past few years has witnessed the interesting emergence of lanky, towering athletes who can nonetheless move around with the alarming speed and fluidity of smaller players. He is six-foot-five and looks it. His movement is rigid, as if he’s still getting used to his legs. So he seldom steal a point that the opponent was controlling, and playing a drop shot versus him is usually a reliable tactic. That serves as a quite severe limitation on his potential.

The American has made a several dramatic, unexpected advancements over the years. At the beginning of the ten-year period, he was hovering around the lower end of the world's best thirty. Two years later, he was approaching the elite ten. The previous season, he suddenly exploded to fourth place – and held the spot. But the next leap, mixing it up with and defeating legendary figures like the young Spaniard, the Italian, and even a declining Serbian, is the highest of all. What could the commentator have been thinking? That Fritz, in 2025, was a legitimate contender to beat them all back-to-back? That it was appropriate commenting on the ongoing slump of American men winning major titles when Fritz had departed the New York major in the quarter-finals? The desperation is just excessive and the appreciation for the magnitude of the task too little.

Taylor Fritz made a personal best advancement to the Wimbledon last four in July.

Fritz’s play in that very quarter-final should have been sufficient of an sign. Djokovic won in four rounds, a victory that only felt uncertain for brief periods towards the very end, when the American had saved a couple match points and had a chance to maintain serve for 5-5. The duo appeared evenly matched during the exchanges, with Fritz earning numerous opportunities to win the opponent's serve. But Djokovic rescued break point after break point, extending the streak to the brink of agony. When he eventually did claim a single of the chances at 5-5 in the second set, he immediately produced a terrible game to lose his own serve again; Djokovic had lulled him into a battle peripheral to the main contest and compelled him to expend far too much effort to win it. Facing match points in the last game, Fritz’s first serve sailed to heaven. He extended the contest two times on his backup delivery, but finally committed two errors. It wasn’t a choke, in my opinion, only a consequence of needing to hit too many second serves.

The contest was fairly compelling proof that Fritz is not good enough to beat any version of the Serbian, that was defeated by Alcaraz in the next round and did not particularly appeared like he thought he could triumph. This is absolutely acceptable – Djokovic is the greatest of all time, and might not be at the peak of his physical powers now, but has acquired enough knowledge and tactical know-how to compensate for a significant portion of the drop-off. The problem is the individuals who were expecting Fritz to win, and pressuring him to do so, when he was yet to done anything that suggested he could.

Fritz is an asset to the circuit nonetheless. He’s a calm, thoughtful voice in press conferences, exceeding virtually everyone on the men's tour aside from the Russian star, willing to not only express how he feels or the strategy he believed determined a match, but clarify it. That he should shoulder the majority of the blame for America failing to produce a male major champion since Andy Roddick feels unjust. (Since Ben Shelton is competing alongside him in the rankings, perhaps they can divide that load.)

Year-End Championships: Singles Groups

American legend Division

• The Spanish phenom
• Taylor Fritz (US)
• The Australian speedster
• The Italian stylist

Swedish icon Group

• Jannik Sinner (It)
• Alexander Zverev (Ger)
• Ben Shelton (US)
• The Canadian talent

“I’d probably think about it indefinitely if I fail to do it,” the American told an interviewer in June of winning a major. It is hoped he realizes that he’s not a failure if he does not fulfill that goal, that overcoming Alcaraz and Sinner’s young, terrifying empire is in fact extremely improbable for all other players. {