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I have some opinions about that comments made by the sports network broadcaster Chris Fowler following Novak Djokovic's win over Taylor Fritz during the US Open quarter-finals. Look – Fritz is the United States, the commentator is American – and sports often lend themselves to patriotic sentiment. A little bit of letdown was understandable. Instead, Fowler invoked the ongoing drought of American men at the majors: not one of them has won a trophy since Andy Roddick in 2003, and Fritz had been the final representative in the tournament.

We all love a narrative, me too. But really. Even if the American had beaten Djokovic for the initial occasion, force of nature Carlos Alcaraz was waiting in the following match, who Fritz has never defeated in an competitive encounter. And if he’d somehow survived that, it would have been defending champion the Italian, versus him Fritz had dropped 10 of the previous eleven sets. The two young stars had also split the last seven major titles (plus Alcaraz proceeded to thrash a tired Djokovic in the subsequent match). He stated in press following his defeat that he in fact liked his path, because it offered the opportunity to defeat the three best players in the world back-to-back. Fritz is more than justified to aspire to the achievement; an athlete is meant to believe in themselves. But entering that Djokovic quarter-final what other person sensibly had the lack of American champions in mind?

Coco Gauff’s second serve the sole barrier standing in her way and sustained success

The American, 28, is placed fourth in the world starting this week’s year-end championships and has won his previous six matches over No 3 Alexander Zverev with growing comfort. It's likely he could claim that position for himself in the coming years. But evidently that at present, that’s as high as he can rise: The Italian and Spaniard sit a vast gap of performance metrics away. Fritz’s top-class delivery and concussive power on each front side and reverse side are more than adequate to dispose of the majority of rivals on the ATP tour. Against the select few generational talents, however, he is often overmatched. The past few years has witnessed the curious rise of tall, gangly athletes who can nonetheless move around with the surprising quickness and fluidity of much shorter players. Fritz is 6ft 5ins 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 other player was controlling, and hitting a drop shot against him is typically a safe bet. That acts as a quite harsh limitation on his potential.

The American has achieved a number of significant, improbable improvements throughout his career. At the beginning of the decade, he was circling the bottom of the world's best thirty. 24 months later, he was approaching the elite ten. Last year, he suddenly exploded up to No 4 – and held the position. But the subsequent step, competing against and beating legendary figures like Alcaraz, Sinner, and including a aging Djokovic, is the toughest of all. What could Fowler have been thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a legitimate contender to defeat them all back-to-back? That it was worth mentioning the ongoing drought of US male players lifting grand slams when Fritz had exited the New York major in the quarter-finals? The desperation is simply too much and the respect for the magnitude of the challenge too little.

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

The American's play in that very last eight match should have been enough of an sign. The Serbian won in four sets, a victory that only seemed uncertain for brief periods towards the very end, when the American had saved a few match points and had a chance to hold for 5-5. The duo looked well-balanced during the rallies, with Fritz earning numerous chances to break. But the champion saved service break opportunity after service break opportunity, prolonging the run to the point of agony. When Fritz finally did claim one of the opportunities at 5-5 in the second set, he promptly produced a terrible game to lose his own serve again; Djokovic had lulled him into a battle secondary to the real battle and compelled him to expend far too much energy to win it. Facing set points in the final game, his first serve floated to heaven. He extended the match twice on his second serve, but finally double-faulted. It wasn’t a choke, in my opinion, only a result of having to hit too many second serves.

The match was quite ironclad evidence that the American is not good enough to defeat any form of Djokovic, that was defeated by Alcaraz in the next round and did not particularly appeared like he thought he could triumph. This is absolutely fine – the Serbian is the greatest of all time, and may not be at the peak of his physical powers anymore, but has developed sufficient knowledge and strategic intelligence to make up for a significant portion of the drop-off. The problem is those who were expecting Fritz to win, and putting pressure on him to do so, when he was yet to done anything that indicated he would.

The American is an valuable contributor to the circuit nonetheless. He’s a calm, reflective voice in media sessions, exceeding almost anyone on the men's tour aside from Daniil Medvedev, willing to not just express how he feels or the tactic he believed determined a match, but explain it. That he should shoulder the majority of the responsibility for the United States failing to spawn a male major champion since the last American titlist feels unjust. (Now that the fellow American is rubbing shoulders with him in the rankings, perhaps they can divide that burden.)

ATP Finals: Singles Groups

Jimmy Connors Group

• The Spanish phenom
• Taylor Fritz (US)
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• Lorenzo Musetti (It)

Bjorn Borg Division

• The Italian champion
• Alexander Zverev (Ger)
• The rising American
• Félix Auger-Aliassime (Can)

“I would likely think about it forever if I don’t accomplish it,” the American informed a journalist in the summer of claiming a grand slam. I hope he understands that he’s not unsuccessful if he doesn’t achieve that objective, that breaking through the Spanish and Italian's young, terrifying empire is in fact extremely unlikely for all other players. {