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I have a few opinions about that comments made by the sports network commentator Chris Fowler following the Serbian champion's victory over Taylor Fritz during the New York major last eight. Look – the athlete represents the United States, Fowler is from the US – and athletic competitions frequently lend themselves to nationalism. A little bit of letdown would have been appropriate. Instead, Fowler invoked the ongoing drought of American men at grand slam tournaments: not one of them has won a title since Andy Roddick in 2003, and he had been the last one standing in the competition.

Everyone love a narrative, myself included. But come on. Even if Fritz defeated the legend for the first time, phenomenal talent Carlos Alcaraz was looming in the following match, who he has never defeated in an official match. And had he someway gotten past that, it would have been defending champion Jannik Sinner, against whom Fritz had lost 10 of the previous eleven sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also split the previous seven grand slams (plus Alcaraz went on to defeat a tired Djokovic in the next round). Fritz stated in press after the loss that he in fact liked his draw, because it presented the chance to beat the three best players in the sport in succession. Fritz is well within his right to aspire to the accomplishment; an athlete is supposed to have faith in themselves. But entering that Djokovic quarter-final who else sensibly had the drought of American champions on the brain?

The American star's second serve the sole barrier standing in her way and consistent victories

Fritz, 28, is placed number four in the world starting this week’s year-end championships and has secured his previous six encounters over No 3 Alexander Zverev with increasing ease. It's likely he might claim that position for himself in the coming years. But evidently that right now, that’s as high as he can climb: The Italian and Spaniard sit a vast gap of performance metrics away. Fritz’s top-class delivery and powerful power on both front side and backhand are sufficiently enough to dispose of most rivals on the ATP tour. Against the select few generational talents, however, Fritz is often overmatched. The last several years has seen the interesting rise of tall, gangly players who can nevertheless cover the court with the surprising speed and grace of much shorter men. Fritz is 6ft 5ins and appears that way. His movement is rigid, as if he’s still getting used to his limbs. So he seldom steal a point that the other player was controlling, and playing a drop shot against him is typically a reliable tactic. That serves as a quite severe restriction on his potential.

The American has made a number of 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. Two years after, he was sniffing the top 10. The previous season, he suddenly surged to No 4 – and held the position. But the subsequent step, mixing it up with and beating legendary figures like Alcaraz, the Italian, and including a declining Serbian, is the highest of all. What was Fowler thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a serious threat to beat them all back-to-back? That it was appropriate commenting on the ongoing drought of US male players lifting major titles when he had departed the US Open in the quarter-finals? The thirst is just too much and the respect for the difficulty of the task too little.

The American star made a personal best run to the All England Club semi-finals in July.

Fritz’s play in that exact last eight match should have been enough of an indication. Djokovic triumphed in four rounds, a victory that only felt uncertain for brief periods towards the very end, when Fritz had saved a few match points and had a chance to hold for 5-5. The pair looked evenly matched during the exchanges, with Fritz creating plenty of chances to break. But Djokovic rescued service break opportunity after service break opportunity, extending the streak to the brink of agony. When he eventually did convert one of the chances at 5-5 in the second set, he promptly played a terrible game to drop serve again; Djokovic had lulled him into a battle secondary to the main contest and forced him to use excessive effort to prevail. Facing match points in the final game, his primary delivery floated to heaven. He prolonged the contest twice on his backup delivery, but finally double-faulted. It wasn’t a collapse, in my opinion, just a consequence of having to hit an excessive number of weaker deliveries.

The contest was fairly compelling evidence that the American is not good enough to defeat any form of Djokovic, who lost to Alcaraz in the next round and did not particularly seem like he believed he could triumph. This is perfectly fine – Djokovic is the best player ever, and may not be at the height of his physical powers now, but has developed sufficient experience and tactical know-how to make up for quite a bit of the drop-off. The problem is those who were expecting Fritz to prevail, and putting pressure on him to achieve that, when he was yet to done anything that indicated he would.

Fritz is an asset to the circuit nonetheless. He’s a calm, thoughtful presence in press conferences, exceeding almost anyone on the ATP except for the Russian star, willing to not just express his emotions or the tactic he believed determined a contest, but explain it. That he should shoulder the majority of the blame for America not spawn a men's grand slam winner since the last American titlist feels unfair. (Now that Ben Shelton is rubbing shoulders with him in the standings, maybe they can share that load.)

ATP Finals: Singles Groups

Jimmy Connors Division

• The Spanish phenom
• The American contender
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• Lorenzo Musetti (It)

Bjorn Borg Division

• Jannik Sinner (It)
• The German powerhouse
• Ben Shelton (US)
• The Canadian talent

“I’d probably think about it indefinitely if I don’t do it,” Fritz informed a journalist in the summer of winning a grand slam. I hope he understands that he’s not a failure if he does not fulfill that objective, that breaking through Alcaraz and Sinner’s dominant, formidable empire is actually extremely improbable for everybody else. {