American Male Grand Slam Dry Spell Isn't Fritz's Burden to Carry

I possess a few opinions about the remarks delivered by the sports network commentator a well-known announcer after Novak Djokovic's victory over Taylor Fritz in the New York major quarter-finals. Look – Fritz is American, Fowler is American – and athletic competitions often encourage nationalism. Some letdown would have been appropriate. Instead, Fowler invoked the ongoing drought of American men at grand slam tournaments: none of them had lifted a trophy since the last American champion in 2003, and Fritz had been the final representative in the competition.

Everyone enjoy a storyline, myself included. But come on. Suppose the American had beaten Djokovic for the first time, force of nature the Spanish star was looming in the following match, who he has never defeated in an competitive encounter. And if he’d somehow survived that, it would have been defending champion Jannik Sinner, versus him the American had dropped 10 of the previous eleven sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also divided the last seven major titles (plus the Spaniard proceeded to thrash a tired Djokovic in the next round). He said in post-match interviews after the loss that he in fact liked his path, because it presented the opportunity to beat the three best competitors in the world in succession. He is well justified to aspire to the achievement; an athlete is supposed to believe in themselves. But going into that Serbian quarter-final who else sensibly had the drought of US winners in mind?

The American, 28, is placed fourth in the global rankings starting the upcoming ATP World Tour Finals and has won his previous six matches over No 3 Alexander Zverev with growing comfort. Presumably he could take that spot for himself in the future. But evidently that right now, that’s as far as he can rise: Sinner and Alcaraz lie a chasm of ranking points away. Fritz’s top-class delivery and powerful power on each front side and backhand are sufficiently enough to defeat most rivals on the professional circuit. Against the select few generational talents, however, Fritz is often overmatched. The past few seasons has seen the interesting emergence of lanky, towering athletes who can nevertheless move around with the surprising quickness and grace of smaller men. Fritz is six-foot-five and looks it. His movement is rigid, as if he’s still getting used to his limbs. So he seldom win a rally that the opponent was controlling, and playing a drop shot versus him is typically a reliable tactic. That serves as a quite harsh restriction on his potential.

Fritz has achieved a number of significant, improbable improvements over the years. At the beginning of the ten-year period, he was hovering around the lower end of the world's best thirty. 24 months later, he was sniffing the elite ten. The previous season, he unexpectedly exploded to fourth place – and held the spot. But the next leap, mixing it up with and beating legendary figures like Alcaraz, Sinner, and including a declining Serbian, is the toughest 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 appropriate commenting on the continuing slump of US male players winning grand slams when he had departed the US Open in the quarter-finals? The desperation is simply too much and the appreciation for the magnitude of the challenge insufficient.

Fritz’s performance in that very last eight match should have been sufficient of an indication. The Serbian triumphed in four sets, a victory that only felt tenuous for brief periods towards the very end, when Fritz had survived a few match points and had a chance to maintain serve for 5-5. The duo looked well-balanced during the exchanges, with the American earning plenty of opportunities to win the opponent's serve. But the champion rescued break point after break point, prolonging the run to the brink of agony. When Fritz finally did convert a single of the opportunities at 5-5 in the middle stanza, he promptly played a terrible game to drop serve again; Djokovic had lulled him into a battle secondary to the main contest and compelled him to use far too much effort to win it. Facing set points in the final game, his primary delivery floated to heaven. He prolonged the contest twice on his second serve, but ultimately committed two errors. It was not a choke, I didn’t think, just a result of having to hit an excessive number of second serves.

The match was quite ironclad proof that the American is insufficiently skilled to defeat any form of the Serbian, who was defeated by the Spaniard in the following match and never particularly seem like he believed he could win. This is absolutely fine – the Serbian is the best player ever, and may not be at the peak of his athletic abilities anymore, but has acquired enough knowledge and tactical know-how to compensate for quite a bit of the decline. The problem is the individuals who were expecting the American to win, and pressuring him to achieve that, when he was had not accomplished anything that suggested he would.

Fritz is an asset to the tour nonetheless. He’s a patient, reflective voice in media sessions, exceeding almost anyone on the ATP except for the Russian star, prepared to not just express how he feels or the strategy he felt determined a match, but explain it. That he ought to shoulder the majority of the responsibility for the United States failing to spawn a men's grand slam winner since Andy Roddick seems unjust. (Since the fellow American is competing alongside him in the rankings, perhaps they can divide that burden.)

“I’d probably think about it forever if I fail to accomplish it,” Fritz told an interviewer in June of claiming a grand slam. I hope he realizes that he’s not unsuccessful if he doesn’t achieve that objective, that overcoming Alcaraz and Sinner’s dominant, formidable reign is actually highly unlikely for all other players. {