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I possess a few opinions regarding the comments made by the sports network commentator Chris Fowler after Novak Djokovic's win over Taylor Fritz during the US Open last eight. Consider – Fritz is the United States, the commentator is from the US – and sports frequently encourage patriotic sentiment. A little bit of disappointment would have been understandable. Rather, he brought up the continued drought of US male players at grand slam tournaments: none of them had lifted a title since Andy Roddick in 2003, and he had been the final representative in the tournament.

Everyone enjoy a storyline, myself included. But come on. Suppose Fritz had beaten Djokovic for the initial occasion, phenomenal talent Carlos Alcaraz was looming in the following match, who Fritz has yet to beat in an official match. And if he’d someway gotten past that, it would have been defending champion Jannik Sinner, versus him the American had dropped 10 of the last 11 sets. The two young stars had also divided the last seven major titles (plus the Spaniard went on to thrash a tired Serbian in the subsequent match). He said in post-match interviews after the loss that he in fact preferred his draw, because it offered the chance to defeat the top three competitors in the world in succession. Fritz 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 American champions on the brain?

The American star's weaker delivery the sole barrier between her and sustained success

Fritz, twenty-eight, is placed fourth in the world entering this week’s year-end championships and has won his last six matches over No 3 Alexander Zverev with increasing ease. It's likely he could claim that position for himself in the coming years. But evidently that at present, that is as far as he can rise: The Italian and Spaniard sit a vast gap of performance metrics away. His elite delivery and powerful strength on each front side and backhand are sufficiently enough to dispose of most rivals on the professional circuit. When facing the handful of once-in-a-lifetime players, however, he is often overmatched. The last several years has witnessed the interesting emergence of lanky, towering athletes who can nonetheless move around with the alarming quickness and fluidity of much shorter players. He is 6ft 5ins and looks it. His movement is stiff, as if he hasn't fully adapted to his limbs. So he seldom win a rally that the other player was controlling, and playing a soft shot against him is usually a safe bet. That acts as a quite harsh restriction on his potential.

The American has achieved a several significant, unexpected improvements throughout his career. At the beginning of the decade, he was circling the lower end of the world's best thirty. Two years later, he was sniffing the elite ten. The previous season, he unexpectedly surged to No 4 – and maintained the position. But the subsequent step, mixing it up with and defeating all-time-greats like the young Spaniard, Sinner, and including a aging Serbian, is the highest of all. What was the commentator thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a legitimate contender to beat them all back-to-back? That it was worth mentioning the ongoing drought of US male players winning major titles when he had departed the New York major in the quarter-finals? The thirst is simply excessive and the respect for the difficulty of the challenge too little.

The American star made a personal best advancement to the Wimbledon last four in the summer.

Fritz’s play in that very quarter-final ought to have been sufficient of an indication. Djokovic triumphed in four rounds, a win that only felt tenuous for brief periods towards the conclusion, when the American had survived a few championship opportunities and had a opportunity to hold for 5-5. The pair appeared well-balanced during the rallies, with Fritz earning numerous opportunities to break. But Djokovic rescued break point after service break opportunity, prolonging the run to the brink of frustration. When he eventually did convert one of the chances at 5-5 in the second set, he promptly produced a horrendous service game to drop serve again; the Serbian had drawn him into a battle peripheral to the real battle and forced him to use excessive effort to prevail. Down set points in the final game, his primary delivery sailed to heaven. He extended the match two times on his backup delivery, but finally double-faulted. It was not a collapse, I didn’t think, only a result of having to hit an excessive number of second serves.

The match was quite compelling evidence that Fritz is insufficiently skilled to defeat any form of Djokovic, who lost to the Spaniard in the following match and never particularly seem like he thought he could triumph. This is perfectly fine – the Serbian is the greatest of all time, and might not be at the peak of his athletic abilities now, but has acquired enough experience and strategic intelligence to make up for quite a bit of the drop-off. The issue is the individuals who were anticipating the American to win, and pressuring him to do so, when he was yet to done anything that suggested he would.

Fritz is an valuable contributor to the circuit regardless. He’s a patient, thoughtful voice in media sessions, more so than virtually anyone on the ATP except for Daniil Medvedev, willing to not just express how he feels or the tactic he believed determined a match, but clarify it. That he ought to shoulder the majority of the responsibility for America not produce a men's grand slam winner since Andy Roddick feels unjust. (Since the fellow American is rubbing shoulders with him in the rankings, maybe they can divide that load.)

ATP Finals: Player Divisions

American legend Division

• Carlos Alcaraz (Sp)
• Taylor Fritz (US)
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• Lorenzo Musetti (It)

Swedish icon Group

• Jannik Sinner (It)
• Alexander Zverev (Ger)
• The rising American
• Félix Auger-Aliassime (Can)

“I’d probably think about it forever if I don’t do it,” the American told a journalist in June of claiming a major. I hope he understands that he’s not unsuccessful if he does not fulfill that goal, that overcoming Alcaraz and Sinner’s young, terrifying empire is in fact highly unlikely for all other players. {