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I have a few opinions regarding the remarks made by the sports network commentator a well-known announcer following Novak Djokovic's win over Taylor Fritz in the New York major quarter-finals. Look – Fritz is American, the commentator is American – and athletic competitions frequently encourage nationalism. Some letdown would have been understandable. Instead, he invoked the continued absence of US male players at the majors: none of them has won a title since the last American champion in 2003, and Fritz had been the last one standing in the tournament.

We all love a narrative, myself included. But really. Suppose Fritz had beaten Djokovic for the initial occasion, phenomenal talent the Spanish star was waiting in the following match, who Fritz has never defeated in an competitive encounter. And had he somehow survived that, it would have been defending champion the Italian, versus him the American had lost 10 of the last 11 sets. The two young stars had also divided the previous seven grand slams (plus the Spaniard went on to defeat a tired Serbian in the subsequent match). He stated in press following his defeat that he in fact preferred his path, because it presented the chance to beat the three best players in the world in succession. Fritz is well justified to aim for the achievement; an athlete is meant to have faith in themselves. But going into that Serbian last eight match what other person in their right mind had the drought of US winners on the brain?

Coco Gauff’s second serve the only thing standing in her way and consistent victories

Fritz, twenty-eight, is ranked number four in the global rankings entering this week’s ATP World Tour Finals and has secured his last six encounters over No 3 the German with increasing ease. Presumably he might take that spot for himself in the coming years. But evidently that right now, that is as far as he can rise: The Italian and Spaniard lie a chasm of ranking points away. Fritz’s top-class serve and concussive strength on each front side and backhand are sufficiently adequate to defeat most rivals on the professional circuit. Against the handful of generational talents, though, he is frequently helpless. The past few seasons has seen the interesting rise of tall, gangly players who can nevertheless move around with the alarming quickness and fluidity of smaller men. Fritz is six-foot-five and appears that way. His movement is stiff, as if he’s still getting used to his legs. So he’ll rarely steal a point that the other player was controlling, and playing a soft shot versus him is usually a reliable tactic. That acts as a quite harsh restriction on his upside.

The American has made 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. Two years after, he was approaching the elite ten. The previous season, he unexpectedly exploded up to fourth place – and held the position. But the next leap, mixing it up with and defeating legendary figures like the young Spaniard, the Italian, and even a declining Serbian, is the highest of all. What could the commentator thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a legitimate contender to defeat them all back-to-back? That it was worth mentioning the continuing slump of American men lifting 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 personal best advancement to the Wimbledon semi-finals in July.

Fritz’s performance in that exact quarter-final ought to have been sufficient of an indication. Djokovic triumphed in four rounds, a victory that only felt tenuous for brief periods towards the very end, when the American had saved a few match points and had a opportunity to hold for 5-5. The pair looked evenly matched during the exchanges, with Fritz earning plenty of opportunities to break. But Djokovic saved service break opportunity after service break opportunity, extending the run to the point of agony. When Fritz eventually did claim a single of the opportunities at 5-5 in the middle stanza, he promptly produced a terrible game to lose his own serve once more; Djokovic had lulled him into a skirmish peripheral to the main contest and forced him to use far too much energy to prevail. Down match points in the last game, his primary delivery floated to the sky. He prolonged the match twice on his second serve, but ultimately double-faulted. It wasn’t a collapse, I didn’t think, just a result of having to hit an excessive number of second serves.

The match was fairly ironclad proof that the American is not good enough to beat any version of Djokovic, that was defeated by the Spaniard in the next round and did not especially appeared like he believed he could triumph. This is absolutely fine – the Serbian is the greatest of all time, and may not be at the height of his athletic abilities anymore, but has developed sufficient knowledge and strategic intelligence to compensate for a significant portion of the decline. The issue is those who were expecting the American to prevail, and pressuring him to achieve that, when he was yet to done anything that indicated he would.

Fritz is an valuable contributor to the tour regardless. He’s a patient, reflective voice in media sessions, more so than virtually anyone on the men's tour aside from Daniil Medvedev, prepared to not only say his emotions or the tactic he felt determined a contest, but explain it. That he should bear the brunt of the responsibility for America failing to spawn a men's grand slam winner since Andy Roddick seems unjust. (Since the fellow American is rubbing shoulders with him in the rankings, perhaps they can share that burden.)

ATP Finals: Player Divisions

Jimmy Connors Division

• The Spanish phenom
• Taylor Fritz (US)
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• The Italian stylist

Bjorn Borg Group

• The Italian champion
• The German powerhouse
• Ben Shelton (US)
• The Canadian talent

“I’d probably think about it forever if I fail to do it,” Fritz informed an interviewer in the summer of claiming a major. I hope he understands that he’s not a failure if he does not fulfill that goal, that overcoming the Spanish and Italian's young, terrifying empire is actually highly improbable for everybody else. {