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I have a few opinions regarding that remarks delivered by the sports network broadcaster a well-known announcer after the Serbian champion's victory over the American player during the New York major last eight. Consider – the athlete represents American, the commentator is American – and sports often encourage patriotic sentiment. A little bit of disappointment would have been understandable. Rather, he brought up the ongoing drought of US male players at grand slam tournaments: none of them had lifted a title since Andy Roddick in 2003, and Fritz had been the last one standing in the competition.

We all love a storyline, myself included. But really. Even if Fritz defeated Djokovic for the initial occasion, force of nature Carlos Alcaraz was looming in the next round, who Fritz has yet to beat in an official match. And if he’d someway gotten past that, it would have been defending champion the Italian, versus him the American had dropped 10 of the last 11 sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also split the previous seven grand slams (plus the Spaniard went on to thrash a tired Djokovic in the next round). Fritz said in post-match interviews after the loss that he in fact liked his draw, because it offered the chance to beat the three best competitors in the sport in succession. Fritz is more than justified to aspire to the achievement; an competitor is supposed to have faith in themselves. But entering that Serbian quarter-final what other person sensibly had the drought of US winners in mind?

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

Fritz, 28, is ranked fourth in the global rankings entering this week’s year-end championships and has secured his last six matches over No 3 Alexander Zverev with increasing ease. Presumably he might take that spot for himself in the future. But evidently that right now, that is as far as he can climb: Sinner and Alcaraz lie a vast gap of performance metrics away. His elite serve and powerful strength on both forehand and backhand are more than adequate to defeat most rivals on the professional circuit. Against the handful of once-in-a-lifetime players, however, Fritz is often helpless. The last several seasons has seen the interesting emergence of lanky, towering athletes who can nonetheless move around with the alarming quickness and grace of much shorter men. Fritz is six-foot-five and appears that way. His movement is stiff, as if he’s still getting used to his legs. So he’ll rarely win a rally that the other player was controlling, and playing a drop shot against him is typically a safe bet. That acts as a quite severe restriction on his upside.

Fritz has achieved a number of significant, unexpected advancements throughout his career. At the beginning of the decade, he was circling the bottom of the world's best thirty. Two years later, he was sniffing the top 10. Last year, he unexpectedly exploded up to No 4 – and maintained the spot. But the next leap, competing against and beating all-time-greats like the young Spaniard, Sinner, and including a declining Djokovic, is the highest of all. What could the commentator have been thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a legitimate contender to defeat them all back-to-back? That it was appropriate mentioning the ongoing slump of American men lifting grand slams when he had exited the New York major in the quarter-finals? The desperation is simply too much and the appreciation for the difficulty of the task insufficient.

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

Fritz’s performance in that very quarter-final should have been enough of an indication. Djokovic won in four rounds, a win that only felt uncertain for moments towards the very end, when Fritz had saved a few match points and had a opportunity to maintain serve for 5-5. The duo looked well-balanced during the exchanges, with the American earning numerous opportunities to win the opponent's serve. But Djokovic saved break point after service break opportunity, prolonging the streak to the brink of agony. When Fritz finally did convert one of the opportunities at 5-5 in the middle stanza, he immediately played a terrible game to lose his own serve again; Djokovic had drawn him into a battle secondary to the real battle and forced him to expend excessive effort to prevail. Facing match points in the last game, his first serve sailed to heaven. He prolonged the match twice on his backup delivery, but finally committed two errors. It wasn’t a choke, I didn’t think, just a consequence of having to hit an excessive number of weaker deliveries.

The match was quite compelling evidence that Fritz is not good enough to beat any version of Djokovic, that lost to the Spaniard in the following match and never especially seem like he thought 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 acquired enough knowledge and strategic intelligence to make up for quite a bit of the drop-off. The issue is those who were anticipating the American to win, and putting pressure on him to do so, when he was yet to accomplished anything that indicated he could.

Fritz is an valuable contributor to the circuit nonetheless. He’s a patient, thoughtful voice in press conferences, exceeding virtually everyone on the ATP except for Daniil Medvedev, willing to not just express how he feels or the tactic he felt decided a match, but clarify it. That he ought to shoulder the majority of the responsibility for America failing to produce a male major champion since the last American titlist feels unjust. (Now that Ben Shelton is rubbing shoulders with him in the rankings, perhaps they can share that burden.)

ATP Finals: Singles Groups

Jimmy Connors Group

• The Spanish phenom
• The American contender
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• The Italian stylist

Bjorn Borg 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 told an interviewer in the summer of winning a major. I hope he realizes that he’s not a failure if he doesn’t achieve that objective, that overcoming Alcaraz and Sinner’s dominant, formidable empire is actually extremely improbable for all other players. {