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I have some thoughts about that comments delivered by the sports network commentator a well-known announcer after the Serbian champion's win over Taylor Fritz during the US Open last eight. Consider – the athlete represents the United States, the commentator is American – and sports often lend themselves to patriotic sentiment. A little bit of disappointment would have been appropriate. Instead, he invoked the continued drought of American men at grand slam tournaments: not one of them had lifted a trophy since Andy Roddick in 2003, and Fritz had been the final representative in the competition.

We all love a narrative, me too. But come on. Suppose Fritz defeated the legend for the first time, force of nature Carlos Alcaraz was looming in the following match, whom he has never defeated in an official match. And if he’d someway gotten past that, it would have been defending champion Jannik Sinner, versus him Fritz had lost 10 of the previous eleven sets. The two young stars had also divided the last seven major titles (and Alcaraz went on to thrash a fatigued Djokovic in the next round). Fritz stated in press following his defeat that he in fact liked his draw, because it offered the opportunity to beat the three best competitors in the world back-to-back. He is well within his right to aim for the accomplishment; an athlete is supposed to believe in themselves. But entering that Djokovic last eight match who else in their right mind had the lack of US winners in mind?

The American star's second serve the sole barrier between her and consistent victories

The American, twenty-eight, is ranked fourth in the world entering this week’s year-end championships and has won his previous six encounters over third-ranked the German with increasing ease. Presumably he might take that spot for himself in the future. But it’s clear that right now, that is as far as he can rise: Sinner and Alcaraz lie a chasm of ranking points away. His elite serve and powerful power on both forehand and backhand are more than enough to defeat the majority of opponents on the ATP tour. Against the select few once-in-a-lifetime players, though, Fritz is frequently helpless. The past few years has witnessed the curious emergence of lanky, towering players who can nonetheless cover the court with the alarming quickness and grace of much shorter men. Fritz is 6ft 5ins and looks it. His footwork is rigid, as if he’s still getting used to his limbs. So he seldom steal a point that the opponent was dictating, and hitting a drop shot against him is typically a safe bet. That serves as a quite harsh limitation on his upside.

Fritz has achieved a several significant, unexpected improvements over the years. 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 top 10. Last year, he unexpectedly surged to No 4 – and maintained the position. But the subsequent step, competing against and beating legendary figures like the young Spaniard, the Italian, and including a declining Djokovic, is the toughest of all. What was the commentator 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 ongoing slump of US male players winning grand slams when Fritz had exited the US Open in the quarter-finals? The desperation is simply excessive and the appreciation for the magnitude of the task insufficient.

Taylor Fritz made a career-best advancement to the Wimbledon 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 seemed uncertain for brief periods towards the very end, when Fritz had survived a couple match points and had a opportunity to maintain serve for 5-5. The duo appeared well-balanced during the exchanges, with Fritz earning plenty of chances to win the opponent's serve. But Djokovic rescued break point after break point, extending the streak to the point of agony. When he finally did claim a single of the chances at 5-5 in the second set, he promptly played a terrible game to lose his own serve again; the Serbian had drawn him into a skirmish peripheral to the real battle and compelled him to use far too much energy to prevail. Facing set points in the final game, his primary delivery sailed to the sky. He prolonged the contest twice on his second serve, but ultimately committed two errors. It was not a collapse, I didn’t think, only a consequence of needing to hit an excessive number of second serves.

The contest was fairly ironclad proof that the American is not good enough to beat any form of the Serbian, who was defeated by the Spaniard in the following match and never particularly appeared like he believed he could win. This is perfectly acceptable – Djokovic is the greatest of all time, and might not be at the height of his athletic abilities now, but has acquired enough knowledge and strategic intelligence to compensate for a significant portion of the drop-off. The problem is those who were expecting the American to win, and putting pressure on him to achieve that, when he was had not accomplished anything that indicated he would.

The American is an asset to the circuit nonetheless. He’s a patient, reflective voice in press conferences, exceeding almost everyone on the men's tour except for the Russian star, willing to not just express his emotions or the tactic he believed decided a contest, but explain it. That he should bear the brunt of the blame for America not produce a men's grand slam winner since Andy Roddick feels unjust. (Now that the fellow American is rubbing shoulders with him in the rankings, perhaps they can divide that load.)

Year-End Championships: Singles Groups

Jimmy Connors Group

• The Spanish phenom
• Taylor Fritz (US)
• The Australian speedster
• The Italian stylist

Bjorn Borg Group

• Jannik Sinner (It)
• The German powerhouse
• The rising American
• Félix Auger-Aliassime (Can)

“I’d probably dwell on it indefinitely if I fail to do it,” Fritz told an interviewer in June of winning a major. It is hoped he understands that he’s not a failure if he doesn’t achieve that goal, that breaking through the Spanish and Italian's dominant, formidable empire is actually extremely unlikely for everybody else. {