🔗 Share this article

I possess a few thoughts about the comments delivered by the sports network commentator Chris Fowler after Novak Djokovic's win over the American player in the US Open quarter-finals. Consider – Fritz is American, the commentator is from the US – and athletic competitions often encourage nationalism. A little bit of disappointment was appropriate. Instead, he brought up the ongoing drought of US male players at the majors: not one of them has won a title since the last American champion in 2003, and Fritz had been the final representative in the competition.

We all love a storyline, me too. But come on. Even if Fritz had beaten the legend for the first time, phenomenal talent Carlos Alcaraz was waiting in the following match, whom Fritz has never defeated in an official match. And had he someway gotten past that, it would have been defending champion the Italian, versus him the American had lost 10 of the previous eleven sets. The two young stars had also divided the last seven grand slams (and Alcaraz proceeded to defeat a fatigued Djokovic in the subsequent match). Fritz stated in press following his defeat that he in fact liked his path, because it presented the opportunity to beat the three best players in the world back-to-back. Fritz is more than within his right to aim for the achievement; an competitor is supposed to have faith in themselves. But going into that Serbian quarter-final what other person in their right mind had the lack of US winners on the brain?

Coco Gauff’s weaker delivery the only thing between her and sustained success

Fritz, 28, is placed number four in the global rankings starting the upcoming year-end championships and has secured his last six encounters over third-ranked Alexander Zverev with increasing ease. It's likely he could claim that position for himself in the coming years. But it’s clear that right now, that is as far as he can rise: Sinner and Alcaraz sit a vast gap of ranking points away. Fritz’s top-class serve and powerful power on both forehand and reverse side are sufficiently adequate to dispose of most rivals on the professional circuit. When facing the select few once-in-a-lifetime players, though, he is often overmatched. The past few years has seen the curious emergence of tall, gangly players who can nevertheless move around with the surprising quickness and grace of smaller men. 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 win a rally that the other player was dictating, and hitting a soft shot versus him is typically a reliable tactic. That acts as a quite severe restriction on his potential.

Fritz has made a number of dramatic, unexpected improvements over the years. Early on of the decade, he was hovering around the bottom of the world's best thirty. Two years after, he was sniffing the top 10. The previous season, he suddenly exploded up to No 4 – and maintained the spot. But the next leap, competing against and beating all-time-greats like Alcaraz, Sinner, and even a aging Serbian, is the highest of all. What was Fowler thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a serious threat to beat them all back-to-back? That it was appropriate commenting on the ongoing slump of US male players winning grand slams when Fritz had departed the New York major in the quarter-finals? The thirst is just excessive and the appreciation for the difficulty of the challenge too little.

Taylor Fritz achieved a personal best run to the Wimbledon semi-finals in July.

The American's play in that very quarter-final should have been enough of an sign. The Serbian triumphed in four rounds, a victory that only felt tenuous for moments towards the very end, when Fritz had saved a couple match points and had a chance to maintain serve for 5-5. The pair looked well-balanced during the exchanges, with the American earning plenty of chances to break. But Djokovic saved break point after break point, prolonging the streak to the point of frustration. When Fritz finally did claim a single of the opportunities at 5-5 in the second set, he immediately produced a terrible service game to drop serve again; Djokovic had drawn him into a battle peripheral to the real battle and compelled him to use far too much effort to win it. Down set points in the last game, Fritz’s primary delivery sailed to heaven. He extended the match twice on his backup delivery, but ultimately double-faulted. It wasn’t a choke, in my opinion, just a result of needing to hit too many second serves.

The match was quite ironclad evidence that Fritz is not good enough to beat any version of the Serbian, who lost to Alcaraz in the next round and never particularly seem like he believed he could triumph. This is perfectly acceptable – the Serbian is the greatest of all time, and may not be at the peak of his athletic abilities anymore, but has developed enough knowledge and strategic intelligence to make up for quite a bit of the drop-off. The problem is the individuals who were anticipating the American to win, and pressuring him to do so, when he was yet to done anything that suggested he could.

Fritz is an valuable contributor to the tour regardless. He’s a patient, reflective voice in media sessions, more so than virtually anyone on the ATP aside from Daniil Medvedev, prepared to not only express how he feels or the tactic he believed decided a match, but clarify it. That he should bear the brunt of the blame for America not produce a male major champion since the last American titlist seems unjust. (Now that Ben Shelton is competing alongside him in the rankings, maybe they can divide that load.)

ATP Finals: Singles Groups

Jimmy Connors Division

• The Spanish phenom
• The American contender
• The Australian speedster
• The Italian stylist

Swedish icon Group

• The Italian champion
• Alexander Zverev (Ger)
• Ben Shelton (US)
• Félix Auger-Aliassime (Can)

“I’d probably dwell on it indefinitely if I don’t do it,” Fritz told a journalist in June of winning a grand slam. I hope he realizes that he’s not unsuccessful if he does not achieve that goal, that overcoming the Spanish and Italian's dominant, formidable empire is actually highly unlikely for everybody else. {