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I have a few opinions about that comments delivered by the sports network broadcaster Chris Fowler after Novak Djokovic's victory over the American player in the New York major last eight. Consider – the athlete represents the United States, Fowler is from the US – and athletic competitions often lend themselves to patriotic sentiment. Some disappointment would have been understandable. Instead, Fowler invoked the ongoing drought of American men at the majors: not one of them has won a trophy since the last American champion in 2003, and he had been the final representative in the competition.

Everyone love a storyline, myself included. But really. Even if the American defeated the legend for the initial occasion, phenomenal talent the Spanish star was looming in the following match, whom Fritz has yet to beat in an official match. And if he’d somehow gotten past that, it would have been defending champion the Italian, versus him the American had dropped 10 of the last 11 sets. The two young stars had also split the last seven major titles (plus Alcaraz proceeded to defeat a fatigued Serbian in the next round). He said in post-match interviews following his defeat that he in fact liked his path, because it presented the opportunity to defeat the three best competitors in the world back-to-back. He is well justified to aspire to the achievement; an athlete is supposed to believe in themselves. But going into that Djokovic quarter-final what other person sensibly had the lack of US winners in mind?

Coco Gauff’s weaker delivery the only thing standing in her way and sustained success

Fritz, 28, is ranked fourth in the world entering this week’s ATP World Tour Finals and has secured his previous six matches over third-ranked Alexander Zverev with growing comfort. Presumably he could claim that position for himself in the coming years. But evidently that right now, that is as far as he can rise: The Italian and Spaniard lie a vast gap of performance metrics away. Fritz’s elite serve and powerful power on each forehand and backhand are sufficiently enough to dispose of most rivals on the ATP tour. Against the handful of once-in-a-lifetime players, though, he is often helpless. The last several seasons has seen the interesting emergence of tall, gangly athletes who can nevertheless cover the court with the alarming quickness and grace of much shorter players. He is 6ft 5ins and looks it. His movement is rigid, as if he’s still getting used to his legs. So he’ll rarely steal a point that the opponent was controlling, and playing a soft shot versus him is typically a safe bet. That serves as a pretty severe limitation on his upside.

The American has made a several dramatic, unexpected advancements throughout his career. Early on of the decade, he was circling the lower end of the world's best thirty. Two years later, he was sniffing the elite ten. The previous season, he suddenly surged to fourth place – and maintained the position. But the subsequent step, mixing it up with and defeating legendary figures like Alcaraz, Sinner, and including a aging Serbian, is the toughest of all. What was Fowler thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a legitimate contender to beat them all back-to-back? That it was appropriate commenting on the continuing slump of US male players winning grand slams when he had departed the US Open in the quarter-finals? The thirst is just excessive and the appreciation for the difficulty of the challenge too little.

The American star made a personal best advancement to the All England Club last four in the summer.

The American's play in that very quarter-final should have been enough of an sign. Djokovic triumphed in four sets, a victory that only seemed tenuous for brief periods towards the very end, when the American had saved a couple championship opportunities and had a opportunity to maintain serve for 5-5. The duo looked well-balanced during the rallies, with Fritz earning plenty of opportunities to break. But the champion rescued service break opportunity after break point, prolonging the streak to the brink of agony. When he eventually did convert a single of the chances at 5-5 in the middle stanza, he promptly played a terrible game to lose his own serve once more; the Serbian had lulled him into a skirmish peripheral to the real battle and compelled him to use excessive effort to win it. Facing set points in the final game, his first serve floated to heaven. He extended the match twice on his backup delivery, but ultimately committed two errors. It wasn’t a choke, in my opinion, just a consequence of needing to hit an excessive number of weaker deliveries.

The contest was quite compelling proof that the American is not good enough to defeat any version of Djokovic, who was defeated by Alcaraz in the following match and never particularly seem like he believed he could win. This is absolutely acceptable – the Serbian is the best player ever, and might not be at the peak of his athletic abilities anymore, but has developed enough knowledge and strategic intelligence to make up for a significant portion of the decline. The issue is those who were expecting Fritz to win, and putting pressure on him to do so, when he was had not done anything that indicated he could.

Fritz is an asset to the circuit nonetheless. He’s a patient, reflective voice in media sessions, exceeding almost everyone on the men's tour aside from Daniil Medvedev, prepared to not just express his emotions or the strategy he believed determined a contest, but clarify it. That he ought to shoulder the majority of the responsibility for America not produce a male major champion since Andy Roddick feels unjust. (Since Ben Shelton is rubbing shoulders with him in the rankings, maybe they can share that burden.)

Year-End Championships: Singles Groups

American legend Division

• Carlos Alcaraz (Sp)
• The American contender
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• The Italian stylist

Swedish icon Group

• Jannik Sinner (It)
• Alexander Zverev (Ger)
• The rising American
• The Canadian talent

“I’d probably dwell on it forever if I don’t do it,” Fritz told an interviewer in the summer of claiming a grand slam. I hope he understands that he’s not unsuccessful if he does not achieve that objective, that breaking through the Spanish and Italian's young, terrifying empire is in fact highly unlikely for everybody else. {