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I possess a few opinions about the comments made by ESPN broadcaster Chris Fowler following the Serbian champion's victory over Taylor Fritz in the New York major last eight. Look – Fritz is American, the commentator is from the US – and sports often encourage patriotic sentiment. Some letdown would have been appropriate. Instead, he 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.

We all enjoy a narrative, me too. But really. Suppose Fritz defeated Djokovic for the first time, phenomenal talent Carlos Alcaraz was waiting in the following match, who he has yet to beat in an official match. And had he somehow gotten past that, it would have been title holder the Italian, against whom the American had dropped 10 of the last 11 sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also split the previous seven major titles (plus Alcaraz proceeded to thrash a fatigued Serbian in the next round). Fritz said in post-match interviews following his defeat that he in fact liked his path, because it presented the chance to beat the top three players in the world back-to-back. Fritz is more than within his right to aspire to the accomplishment; an athlete is supposed to have faith in themselves. But entering that Djokovic quarter-final what other person sensibly had the lack of US winners on the brain?

Coco Gauff’s second serve the only thing between her and consistent victories

Fritz, twenty-eight, is ranked fourth in the world entering this week’s ATP World Tour Finals and has secured his last six encounters over No 3 the German with increasing ease. It's likely he could claim that position for himself in the future. But evidently that at present, that’s as high as he can climb: The Italian and Spaniard sit a vast gap of ranking points away. His top-class delivery and powerful power on each front side and reverse side are more than adequate to defeat most rivals on the ATP tour. Against the select few generational talents, though, he is frequently helpless. The past few seasons has seen the interesting rise of tall, gangly athletes who can nevertheless move around with the alarming quickness and fluidity of much shorter players. Fritz is six-foot-five and looks it. His movement is stiff, as if he’s still getting used to his limbs. So he seldom steal a point that the opponent was dictating, and hitting a soft shot against him is typically a safe bet. That acts as a quite severe limitation on his upside.

Fritz has made a number of significant, improbable advancements throughout his career. At the beginning of the decade, he was hovering around the lower end of the top 30. Two years after, he was sniffing the elite ten. The previous season, he unexpectedly exploded up to No 4 – and maintained the spot. But the next leap, competing against and beating legendary figures like Alcaraz, Sinner, and including a aging Djokovic, is the toughest 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 appropriate mentioning the continuing slump of American men lifting major titles when he had exited the New York major in the quarter-finals? The desperation is simply excessive and the respect for the difficulty of the task too little.

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

Fritz’s performance 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 saved a couple match points and had a opportunity to maintain serve for 5-5. The duo looked evenly matched during the rallies, with the American earning plenty of chances to break. But the champion rescued service break opportunity after break point, prolonging the run to the point of frustration. When he eventually did convert one of the chances at 5-5 in the middle stanza, he promptly played a horrendous game to lose his own serve once more; Djokovic had lulled him into a battle peripheral to the real battle and compelled him to expend excessive energy to win it. Down match points in the final game, Fritz’s first serve floated to heaven. He extended the contest two times on his second serve, but ultimately committed two errors. It was not a collapse, in my opinion, only a result of having to hit an excessive number of second serves.

The contest was quite compelling evidence that Fritz is insufficiently skilled to beat any form of the Serbian, that lost to the Spaniard in the following match and did not especially seem like he believed he could win. This is absolutely fine – the Serbian is the best player ever, and might not be at the peak of his athletic abilities now, but has developed sufficient experience and strategic intelligence to compensate for quite a bit of the decline. The problem is the individuals who were anticipating Fritz to prevail, and putting pressure on him to achieve that, when he was yet to accomplished anything that indicated he could.

Fritz is an valuable contributor to the tour nonetheless. He’s a calm, reflective voice in media sessions, more so than virtually everyone on the ATP aside from Daniil Medvedev, prepared to not only express his emotions or the strategy he felt decided a contest, but explain it. That he ought to bear the brunt of the responsibility for the United States failing to produce a male major champion since the last American titlist feels unfair. (Now that the fellow American is competing alongside him in the standings, perhaps they can divide that burden.)

ATP Finals: Player Divisions

American legend Group

• Carlos Alcaraz (Sp)
• Taylor Fritz (US)
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• The Italian stylist

Swedish icon Division

• Jannik Sinner (It)
• The German powerhouse
• Ben Shelton (US)
• Félix Auger-Aliassime (Can)

“I would likely think about it indefinitely if I don’t accomplish it,” the American informed an interviewer in the summer of claiming a grand slam. I hope he understands that he’s not a failure if he doesn’t achieve that objective, that breaking through the Spanish and Italian's dominant, formidable reign is actually highly unlikely for all other players. {