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I possess a few thoughts about the remarks delivered by the sports network commentator a well-known announcer after the Serbian champion's victory over Taylor Fritz in the New York major last eight. Consider – Fritz is American, the commentator is from the US – and athletic competitions frequently encourage nationalism. A little bit of letdown would have been understandable. Instead, he brought up the continued absence of US male players at the majors: not one of them has won a title since Andy Roddick in 2003, and Fritz had been the last one standing in the competition.

We all love a storyline, me too. But really. Even if Fritz had beaten the legend for the first time, phenomenal talent the Spanish star was looming in the following match, whom Fritz has never defeated in an official match. And if he’d somehow survived that, it would have been title holder the Italian, versus him Fritz had lost 10 of the previous eleven sets. The two young stars had also split the last seven major titles (plus the Spaniard went on to defeat a fatigued Djokovic in the next round). He said in post-match interviews following his defeat that he in fact liked his path, because it presented the chance to defeat the three best competitors in the sport back-to-back. Fritz is well within his right to aspire to the accomplishment; an competitor is supposed to have faith in themselves. But entering that Djokovic quarter-final who else in their right mind had the lack of American champions in mind?

The American star's weaker delivery the sole barrier standing in her way and sustained success

Fritz, twenty-eight, is placed fourth in the global rankings starting the upcoming ATP World Tour Finals and has won his previous six matches over No 3 Alexander Zverev with increasing ease. It's likely he could take that spot for himself in the coming years. But evidently that right now, that’s as high as he can climb: The Italian and Spaniard lie a vast gap of ranking points away. His elite serve and concussive power on each front side and reverse side are more than enough to defeat most opponents on the ATP tour. When facing the select few once-in-a-lifetime players, however, Fritz is often helpless. The past few seasons has witnessed the curious rise of lanky, towering players who can nevertheless move around with the alarming quickness and grace of smaller players. He is 6ft 5ins and looks it. His footwork is rigid, as if he hasn't fully adapted 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 serves as a quite harsh restriction on his potential.

The American has achieved a number of dramatic, improbable improvements throughout his career. Early on of the decade, he was hovering around the lower end of the world's best thirty. Two years later, he was sniffing the elite ten. Last year, he suddenly exploded up to No 4 – and maintained the spot. But the next leap, mixing it up with and defeating all-time-greats like the young Spaniard, Sinner, and including a declining Djokovic, is the toughest of all. What could the commentator have been thinking? That Fritz, in 2025, was a serious threat to defeat them all back-to-back? That it was appropriate mentioning the continuing drought of US male players winning major titles when he had exited the US Open in the quarter-finals? The desperation is simply excessive and the respect for the difficulty of the task insufficient.

The American star achieved a personal best run to the All England Club semi-finals in the summer.

Fritz’s performance in that exact last eight match ought to have been enough of an indication. Djokovic won in four rounds, a win that only felt tenuous for brief periods towards the conclusion, when the American had survived a few match points and had a chance to maintain serve for 5-5. The pair looked evenly matched during the exchanges, with Fritz earning plenty of opportunities to break. But the champion saved break point after break point, extending the streak to the point of agony. When Fritz finally did claim one of the chances at 5-5 in the middle stanza, he immediately played a terrible service game to lose his own serve once more; the Serbian had drawn him into a battle secondary to the main contest and compelled him to use excessive effort to prevail. Facing match points in the final game, Fritz’s primary delivery sailed to heaven. He prolonged the contest twice on his second serve, but finally committed two errors. It wasn’t a collapse, in my opinion, just a result of having to hit an excessive number of weaker deliveries.

The match was quite ironclad evidence that Fritz is not good enough to beat any version of Djokovic, that lost to Alcaraz in the following match and never especially appeared like he believed he could triumph. This is perfectly fine – Djokovic is the greatest of all time, and might not be at the height of his athletic abilities now, but has developed enough knowledge and strategic intelligence to make up for a significant portion of the drop-off. The issue is those who were anticipating Fritz to win, and putting pressure on him to achieve that, when he was yet to accomplished anything that suggested he would.

Fritz is an valuable contributor to the circuit regardless. He’s a calm, thoughtful voice in media sessions, more so than almost everyone on the men's tour except for Daniil Medvedev, willing to not only say his emotions or the tactic he believed determined a contest, but explain it. That he should shoulder the majority of the responsibility for America failing to spawn a male major champion since the last American titlist feels unfair. (Now that the fellow American is competing alongside him in the standings, maybe they can share that burden.)

Year-End Championships: Singles Groups

American legend Group

• The Spanish phenom
• The American contender
• The Australian speedster
• Lorenzo Musetti (It)

Swedish icon Group

• The Italian champion
• The German powerhouse
• The rising American
• Félix Auger-Aliassime (Can)

“I would likely think about it forever if I fail to do it,” Fritz informed a journalist in June of winning a major. It is hoped he realizes that he’s not unsuccessful if he does not fulfill that objective, that breaking through the Spanish and Italian's young, terrifying reign is actually highly unlikely for all other players. {