American Male Major Title Drought Is Not Fritz's Responsibility to Bear

I have some opinions regarding that comments delivered by ESPN broadcaster Chris Fowler after the Serbian champion's victory over the American player in the US Open quarter-finals. Look – the athlete represents the United States, the commentator is American – and athletic competitions often lend themselves to patriotic sentiment. Some disappointment would have been understandable. Instead, Fowler brought up the ongoing absence of American men at the majors: none of them has won a trophy since Andy Roddick in 2003, and he had been the final representative in the tournament.

We all love a storyline, myself included. But really. Even if the American defeated Djokovic for the first time, phenomenal talent the Spanish star was waiting in the following match, whom Fritz has never defeated in an official match. And had he someway survived that, it would have been defending champion Jannik Sinner, against whom the American had lost 10 of the last 11 sets. The two young stars had also divided the previous seven grand slams (plus Alcaraz went on to thrash a fatigued Djokovic in the next round). Fritz stated in press after the loss that he in fact preferred his draw, because it offered the opportunity to beat the three best competitors in the world back-to-back. He is well within his right to aspire to the achievement; an athlete is meant to have faith in themselves. But entering that Serbian quarter-final who else sensibly had the drought of US winners in mind?

The American, twenty-eight, is placed fourth in the world entering this week’s year-end championships and has secured his last six matches over No 3 Alexander Zverev with growing comfort. Presumably he could take that spot for himself in the future. But it’s clear that at present, that is as far as he can rise: The Italian and Spaniard lie a vast gap of performance metrics away. Fritz’s top-class serve and concussive power on each forehand and backhand are sufficiently adequate to dispose of most opponents on the professional circuit. Against the select few generational talents, though, Fritz is frequently helpless. The past few seasons has seen the curious emergence of lanky, towering players who can nevertheless move around with the alarming quickness and grace of much shorter players. Fritz 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 other player was dictating, and playing a soft shot versus him is usually a reliable tactic. That serves as a pretty harsh limitation on his upside.

The American has made a number of significant, improbable improvements over the years. At the beginning of the decade, he was circling the lower end of the top 30. Two years later, he was sniffing the top 10. The previous season, he unexpectedly exploded up to No 4 – and held the spot. But the next leap, competing against and beating all-time-greats like the young Spaniard, Sinner, and even a aging Djokovic, is the highest of all. What was Fowler have been thinking? That Fritz, in 2025, was a serious threat to defeat them all back-to-back? That it was appropriate commenting on the ongoing slump of American men winning major titles when he had departed the US Open in the quarter-finals? The desperation is simply too much and the respect for the magnitude of the challenge too little.

Fritz’s play in that very quarter-final should have been enough of an indication. The Serbian triumphed in four rounds, a victory that only felt tenuous for moments towards the very end, when the American had survived a few championship opportunities and had a chance to hold for 5-5. The pair looked evenly matched during the exchanges, with the American creating plenty of chances to win the opponent's serve. But Djokovic saved break point after service break opportunity, prolonging the streak to the brink of agony. When he finally did claim one of the chances at 5-5 in the middle stanza, he promptly produced a horrendous service game to lose his own serve again; Djokovic had lulled him into a battle peripheral to the real battle and forced him to use excessive effort to prevail. Facing match points in the last game, his primary delivery floated to the sky. He prolonged the contest twice on his backup delivery, but finally committed two errors. It wasn’t a choke, in my opinion, only a result of having to hit too many second serves.

The contest was quite compelling evidence that the American is insufficiently skilled to beat any form of Djokovic, who was defeated by Alcaraz in the following match and never particularly seem like he believed he could triumph. This is absolutely acceptable – Djokovic is the greatest of all time, and might not be at the peak of his athletic abilities now, but has acquired sufficient knowledge and tactical know-how to make up for a significant portion of the drop-off. The problem is the individuals who were anticipating the American to win, and putting pressure on him to achieve that, when he was yet to accomplished anything that indicated he could.

Fritz is an asset to the circuit regardless. He’s a calm, thoughtful voice in media sessions, exceeding virtually anyone on the men's tour aside from Daniil Medvedev, willing to not only say how he feels or the strategy he believed determined a contest, but explain it. That he ought to shoulder the majority of the responsibility for America not produce a male major champion since the last American titlist seems unjust. (Now that Ben Shelton is competing alongside him in the rankings, perhaps they can share that burden.)

“I would likely think about it indefinitely if I fail to do it,” the American told a journalist in the summer of claiming a major. It is hoped he understands that he’s not unsuccessful if he doesn’t achieve that objective, that breaking through the Spanish and Italian's dominant, formidable reign is in fact highly unlikely for all other players. {