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I possess a few opinions regarding the comments delivered by the sports network commentator Chris Fowler following Novak Djokovic's win over the American player in the US Open last eight. Consider – the athlete represents American, Fowler is American – and athletic competitions frequently encourage nationalism. A little bit of disappointment would have been appropriate. Instead, he brought up the continued absence of American men at the majors: none of them has won a title since the last American champion in 2003, and he had been the final representative in the tournament.

Everyone enjoy a storyline, myself included. But really. Even if Fritz had beaten the legend for the first time, force of nature Carlos Alcaraz was looming in the next round, who he has never defeated in an official match. And if he’d somehow survived that, it would have been defending champion Jannik Sinner, against whom Fritz had dropped 10 of the previous eleven sets. The two young stars had also split the previous seven major titles (and Alcaraz proceeded to thrash a fatigued Serbian in the subsequent match). He stated in press after the loss that he in fact liked his draw, because it presented the chance to defeat the top three players in the world back-to-back. Fritz is well justified to aim for the accomplishment; an athlete is meant to have faith in themselves. But going into that Djokovic last eight match what other person sensibly had the lack of American champions on the brain?

Coco Gauff’s second serve the only thing between her and sustained success

The American, 28, is placed number four in the world entering this week’s ATP World Tour Finals and has won his previous six matches over third-ranked the German with growing comfort. It's likely he could claim that position for himself in the coming years. But it’s clear that right now, that’s as high as he can rise: Sinner and Alcaraz sit a chasm of performance metrics away. His top-class serve and powerful power on both forehand and reverse side are more than adequate to defeat the majority of rivals on the professional circuit. When facing the handful of once-in-a-lifetime players, however, he is often overmatched. The last several seasons has witnessed the curious emergence of lanky, towering players who can nonetheless move around with the surprising speed and grace of smaller players. He is six-foot-five and appears that way. His movement is rigid, as if he hasn't fully adapted to his limbs. So he seldom win a rally that the opponent was dictating, and hitting a drop shot versus him is typically a safe bet. That acts as a pretty harsh restriction on his potential.

Fritz has made a number of dramatic, improbable advancements throughout his career. At the beginning of the ten-year period, he was hovering around the lower end of the world's best thirty. Two years later, he was sniffing the top 10. The previous season, he unexpectedly surged up to No 4 – and held the spot. But the subsequent step, mixing it up with and defeating all-time-greats like the young Spaniard, Sinner, and including a declining Djokovic, is the highest of all. What was Fowler have been thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a legitimate contender to beat them all back-to-back? That it was worth mentioning the continuing slump of American men winning grand slams when he had departed the New York major in the quarter-finals? The thirst is simply excessive and the appreciation for the difficulty of the task insufficient.

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

Fritz’s performance in that very last eight match ought to have been enough of an sign. Djokovic won in four sets, a victory that only felt tenuous for brief periods towards the very end, when Fritz had saved a few match points and had a opportunity to maintain serve for 5-5. The duo appeared evenly matched during the exchanges, with Fritz earning plenty of chances to win the opponent's serve. But Djokovic saved service break opportunity after break point, prolonging the run to the point of frustration. When he finally did claim one of the opportunities at 5-5 in the second set, he immediately played a horrendous game to drop serve again; the Serbian had lulled him into a skirmish peripheral to the real battle and compelled him to expend excessive energy to prevail. Facing set points in the last game, Fritz’s first serve floated to heaven. He prolonged the match two times on his second serve, but finally committed two errors. It was not a choke, I didn’t think, just a result of having to hit an excessive number of second serves.

The match was fairly compelling evidence that Fritz is not good enough to beat any version of Djokovic, that was defeated by the Spaniard in the following match and did not especially seem like he believed he could triumph. This is perfectly fine – Djokovic is the greatest of all time, and may not be at the height of his physical powers anymore, but has acquired sufficient knowledge and strategic intelligence to make up for a significant portion of the drop-off. The issue is the individuals who were anticipating the American to prevail, and pressuring him to achieve that, when he was yet to accomplished anything that suggested he could.

The American is an asset to the tour regardless. He’s a patient, thoughtful presence in media sessions, more so than almost everyone on the men's tour aside from Daniil Medvedev, prepared to not only express how he feels or the strategy he believed determined a match, but explain it. That he should bear the brunt of the blame for America failing to produce a male major champion since the last American titlist seems unjust. (Since Ben Shelton is rubbing shoulders with him in the standings, perhaps they can share that burden.)

ATP Finals: Player Divisions

Jimmy Connors Group

• Carlos Alcaraz (Sp)
• The American contender
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• Lorenzo Musetti (It)

Swedish icon Division

• The Italian champion
• The German powerhouse
• The rising American
• The Canadian talent

“I’d probably think about it indefinitely if I don’t accomplish it,” the American told a journalist in June of claiming a major. I hope he realizes that he’s not a failure if he doesn’t fulfill that objective, that breaking through the Spanish and Italian's dominant, formidable reign is in fact extremely unlikely for all other players. {