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I possess some opinions regarding the comments made by ESPN commentator Chris Fowler after Novak Djokovic's victory over Taylor Fritz in the US Open quarter-finals. Consider – the athlete represents American, the commentator is from the US – and sports frequently encourage patriotic sentiment. A little bit of letdown would have been understandable. Instead, Fowler invoked the ongoing absence of American men at grand slam tournaments: none of them had lifted a trophy since the last American champion in 2003, and he had been the final representative in the tournament.

We all enjoy a storyline, me too. But really. Suppose Fritz defeated the legend for the first time, force of nature Carlos Alcaraz was looming in the next round, who he has yet to beat in an official match. And if he’d someway survived that, it would have been defending champion Jannik Sinner, versus him the American had dropped 10 of the previous eleven sets. The two young stars had also split the last seven grand slams (and the Spaniard proceeded to thrash a fatigued Djokovic in the next round). Fritz stated in post-match interviews following his defeat that he actually liked his path, because it presented the chance to defeat the three best players in the sport in succession. He is well justified to aim for the achievement; an athlete is meant to believe in themselves. But entering that Serbian quarter-final who else in their right mind had the drought of US winners in mind?

Coco Gauff’s weaker delivery the only thing between her and consistent victories

The American, 28, is ranked number four in the world starting the upcoming ATP World Tour Finals and has won his previous six encounters over No 3 the German with increasing ease. Presumably he could claim that position for himself in the coming years. But it’s clear that at present, that’s as high as he can climb: Sinner and Alcaraz sit a vast gap of ranking points away. Fritz’s elite serve and concussive power on both forehand and reverse side are sufficiently enough to dispose of the majority of opponents on the professional circuit. When facing the handful of once-in-a-lifetime players, though, he is often overmatched. The past few seasons has seen the curious rise of tall, gangly players who can nevertheless cover the court with the surprising speed and fluidity of smaller men. He is six-foot-five and looks it. His footwork is stiff, as if he’s still getting used to his limbs. So he’ll rarely steal a point that the other player was controlling, and playing a soft shot against him is usually a safe bet. That serves as a pretty severe restriction on his upside.

Fritz has achieved a number of significant, unexpected improvements throughout his career. Early on of the decade, he was circling the lower end of the world's best thirty. 24 months after, he was sniffing the elite ten. The previous season, he unexpectedly surged up to fourth place – and maintained the spot. But the subsequent step, mixing it up with and defeating all-time-greats like the young Spaniard, Sinner, and even a aging Djokovic, is the toughest of all. What could Fowler have been thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a legitimate contender to beat them all back-to-back? That it was worth commenting on the ongoing slump of US male players winning grand slams when he had exited the US Open in the quarter-finals? The thirst is just excessive and the appreciation for the difficulty of the task too little.

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

The American's performance in that very quarter-final should have been enough of an indication. Djokovic won in four sets, a win that only felt tenuous for moments towards the very end, when the American had saved a few match points and had a chance to maintain serve for 5-5. The duo appeared evenly matched during the exchanges, with the American creating plenty of chances to win the opponent's serve. But the champion saved service break opportunity after break point, extending the streak to the point of agony. When he eventually did claim one of the opportunities at 5-5 in the second set, he promptly played a horrendous service game to lose his own serve again; the Serbian had lulled him into a skirmish peripheral to the real battle and compelled him to expend excessive energy to win it. Facing match points in the final game, Fritz’s first serve floated to heaven. He prolonged the match twice on his backup delivery, but ultimately double-faulted. It was not a collapse, I didn’t think, just a consequence of needing to hit too many weaker deliveries.

The contest was quite ironclad proof that Fritz is not good enough to beat any version of Djokovic, that was defeated by the Spaniard in the next round and never particularly seem like he believed he could win. This is perfectly acceptable – the Serbian is the greatest of all time, and might not be at the peak of his physical powers anymore, but has developed enough knowledge and strategic intelligence to make up for quite a bit of the drop-off. The issue is those who were expecting the American to win, and pressuring him to achieve that, when he was yet to done anything that suggested he could.

The American is an asset to the tour nonetheless. He’s a calm, reflective presence in media sessions, more so than almost everyone on the ATP except for the Russian star, prepared to not only express his emotions or the strategy he felt decided a match, but explain it. That he should shoulder the majority of the responsibility for America not spawn a men's grand slam winner since Andy Roddick seems unfair. (Now that Ben Shelton is rubbing shoulders with him in the standings, maybe they can divide that load.)

ATP Finals: Player Divisions

Jimmy Connors Group

• The Spanish phenom
• Taylor Fritz (US)
• The Australian speedster
• Lorenzo Musetti (It)

Bjorn Borg Group

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

“I’d probably think about it indefinitely if I fail to do it,” Fritz informed a journalist in the summer of winning a major. I hope he understands 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 extremely unlikely for all other players. {