American Male Major Title Dry Spell Is Not Taylor Fritz's Responsibility to Bear

I possess some thoughts regarding that remarks made by the sports network commentator a well-known announcer following the Serbian champion's win over the American player during the US Open last eight. Consider – Fritz is American, Fowler is from the US – and sports frequently encourage nationalism. A little bit of disappointment would have been appropriate. Rather, he invoked the continued absence of US male players at the majors: none of them has won a trophy since Andy Roddick in 2003, and Fritz had been the last one standing in the tournament.

We all love a storyline, myself included. But come on. Suppose the American had beaten Djokovic for the initial occasion, phenomenal talent Carlos Alcaraz was waiting in the following match, who Fritz has yet to beat in an official match. And if he’d someway survived that, it would have been title holder the Italian, against whom Fritz had lost 10 of the previous eleven sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also split the previous seven grand slams (and the Spaniard went on to defeat a fatigued Serbian in the next round). Fritz said in press following his defeat that he actually preferred his draw, because it offered the opportunity to beat the top three players in the sport in succession. Fritz is more than justified to aspire to the achievement; an athlete is meant to have faith in themselves. But entering that Serbian last eight match who else sensibly had the lack of US winners in mind?

The American, 28, is ranked fourth in the world entering this week’s ATP World Tour Finals and has secured his last six matches over third-ranked the German with increasing ease. It's likely he could take that spot for himself in the coming years. But it’s clear that right now, that’s as far as he can climb: The Italian and Spaniard sit a chasm of ranking points away. His elite serve and concussive power on both forehand and backhand are sufficiently enough to dispose of most opponents on the ATP tour. Against the select few once-in-a-lifetime players, however, Fritz is frequently helpless. The last several years has witnessed the curious emergence of lanky, towering athletes who can nonetheless move around with the surprising quickness and grace of much shorter players. He is 6ft 5ins and appears that way. His footwork is stiff, as if he’s still getting used to his legs. So he seldom win a rally that the opponent was controlling, and hitting a drop shot versus him is typically a reliable tactic. That serves as a pretty harsh restriction on his potential.

Fritz has made a number of significant, unexpected improvements over the years. Early on of the decade, he was hovering around the lower end of the world's best thirty. 24 months after, he was approaching the top 10. The previous season, he suddenly surged up to No 4 – and held the spot. But the subsequent step, mixing it up with and defeating legendary figures like Alcaraz, the Italian, and even a aging Djokovic, is the highest of all. What could the commentator have been thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a legitimate contender to beat them all back-to-back? That it was appropriate mentioning the continuing drought of American men winning grand slams when Fritz had exited the New York major in the quarter-finals? The thirst is just too much and the respect for the magnitude of the task too little.

Fritz’s play in that exact last eight match ought to have been enough of an indication. The Serbian won in four sets, a win that only seemed tenuous for brief periods towards the very end, when the American had saved a few championship opportunities and had a chance to hold for 5-5. The pair looked well-balanced during the exchanges, with the American creating numerous opportunities to break. But Djokovic saved service break opportunity after break point, extending the streak to the point of agony. When he eventually did claim one of the opportunities at 5-5 in the second set, he immediately produced a terrible service game to lose his own serve again; the Serbian had lulled him into a skirmish secondary to the real battle and forced him to expend excessive effort to win it. Down match points in the final game, Fritz’s primary delivery floated to the sky. He extended the contest two times on his backup delivery, but ultimately double-faulted. It was not a collapse, I didn’t think, only a result of needing to hit too many second serves.

The contest was quite ironclad proof that the American is insufficiently skilled to defeat any form of Djokovic, that lost to the Spaniard in the following match and never especially seem like he thought he could win. This is perfectly acceptable – the Serbian is the best player ever, and might not be at the peak of his physical powers anymore, but has acquired sufficient knowledge and strategic intelligence to make up for a significant portion of the drop-off. The issue is the individuals who were anticipating Fritz to win, and putting pressure on him to achieve that, when he was had not done anything that indicated he could.

The American is an valuable contributor to the tour regardless. He’s a patient, thoughtful presence in media sessions, more so than virtually everyone on the ATP aside from the Russian star, prepared to not only express how he feels or the tactic he felt decided a match, but explain it. That he should bear the brunt of the blame for America not spawn a male major champion since the last American titlist seems unjust. (Since Ben Shelton is rubbing shoulders with him in the rankings, perhaps they can divide that burden.)

“I’d probably dwell on it indefinitely if I fail to do it,” Fritz informed a journalist in the summer of winning a major. I hope he understands that he’s not a failure if he doesn’t fulfill that objective, that breaking through the Spanish and Italian's young, terrifying reign is in fact extremely unlikely for all other players. {