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I possess some opinions regarding the comments delivered by ESPN commentator Chris Fowler after the Serbian champion's victory over Taylor Fritz during the US Open last eight. Consider – the athlete represents American, Fowler is from the US – and athletic competitions often lend themselves to patriotic sentiment. A little bit of disappointment would have been understandable. Rather, he brought up the ongoing drought of American men at the majors: none of them has won a trophy since the last American champion in 2003, and Fritz had been the final representative in the competition.

We all love a storyline, me too. But really. Suppose the American defeated the legend for the initial occasion, phenomenal talent Carlos Alcaraz was waiting in the following match, who he has yet to beat in an competitive encounter. And had he somehow gotten past that, it would have been defending champion the Italian, versus him the American had dropped 10 of the previous eleven sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also split the previous seven major titles (and Alcaraz went on to defeat a tired Djokovic in the subsequent match). 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 in succession. Fritz is more than justified to aspire to the achievement; an athlete is meant to believe in themselves. But going into that Djokovic last eight match who else sensibly had the drought of US winners on the brain?

The American star's weaker delivery the only thing standing in her way and sustained success

The American, 28, is placed fourth in the world starting this week’s ATP World Tour Finals and has won his last six encounters over third-ranked Alexander Zverev with growing comfort. It's likely he could take that spot for himself in the coming years. But it’s clear that at present, that is as high as he can climb: The Italian and Spaniard lie a vast gap of ranking points away. Fritz’s top-class serve and concussive strength on each front side and reverse side are sufficiently enough to defeat most rivals on the professional circuit. Against the handful of generational talents, however, Fritz is often helpless. The past few seasons has seen the interesting rise of tall, gangly athletes who can nonetheless move around with the surprising quickness and fluidity of much shorter men. He is six-foot-five and looks it. His movement is stiff, as if he hasn't fully adapted to his legs. So he’ll rarely steal a point that the opponent was dictating, and playing a drop shot against him is usually a safe bet. That acts as a quite severe restriction on his potential.

Fritz has achieved a number of dramatic, improbable advancements throughout his career. At the beginning of the ten-year period, he was circling the lower end of the world's best thirty. 24 months later, he was sniffing the elite ten. Last year, he suddenly surged up to fourth place – and held the spot. But the subsequent step, mixing it up with and beating all-time-greats like the young Spaniard, the Italian, and even a aging Serbian, is the highest of all. What was the commentator thinking? That Fritz, in 2025, was a serious threat to beat them all back-to-back? That it was worth mentioning the continuing slump of US male players lifting grand slams when Fritz had exited the New York major in the quarter-finals? The desperation is simply excessive and the respect for the difficulty of the challenge too little.

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

The American's performance in that very quarter-final ought to have been sufficient of an indication. The Serbian won in four rounds, a win that only seemed tenuous for moments towards the very end, when Fritz had survived a few match points and had a chance to maintain serve for 5-5. The duo appeared well-balanced during the exchanges, with the American creating plenty of opportunities to break. But Djokovic saved break point after break point, prolonging the streak to the point of frustration. When he finally did convert one of the chances at 5-5 in the second set, he promptly produced a terrible service game to lose his own serve again; Djokovic had drawn him into a skirmish secondary to the real battle and compelled him to expend excessive effort to win it. Down match points in the final game, Fritz’s first serve floated to the sky. He prolonged the match twice on his second serve, but ultimately committed two errors. It wasn’t a choke, I didn’t think, only a result of needing to hit too many second serves.

The match was quite ironclad proof that the American is insufficiently skilled to beat any form of the Serbian, who lost to Alcaraz in the following match and did not especially appeared like he thought he could triumph. This is absolutely acceptable – the Serbian is the best player ever, and may not be at the height of his athletic abilities anymore, but has developed sufficient knowledge and strategic intelligence to compensate for a significant portion of the decline. The issue is those who were expecting the American to prevail, and putting pressure on him to do so, when he was yet to accomplished anything that suggested he could.

The American is an valuable contributor to the tour regardless. He’s a calm, reflective presence in press conferences, more so than almost anyone on the ATP aside from Daniil Medvedev, willing to not only say his emotions or the strategy he believed determined a contest, but explain it. That he should bear the brunt of the blame for the United States not produce a men's grand slam winner since the last American titlist feels unfair. (Now that the fellow American is competing alongside him in the standings, perhaps they can share that load.)

ATP Finals: Singles Groups

Jimmy Connors Division

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

Swedish icon Group

• The Italian champion
• Alexander Zverev (Ger)
• Ben Shelton (US)
• Félix Auger-Aliassime (Can)

“I’d probably dwell on it indefinitely if I fail to accomplish it,” the American told an interviewer in the summer of winning a major. I hope he understands that he’s not unsuccessful if he doesn’t achieve that goal, that breaking through Alcaraz and Sinner’s young, terrifying reign is actually highly improbable for everybody else. {