As Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe tussled for five sets on Friday night in a historic all-American semi-final duel to decide who would clinch the greatest opportunity of their career, Andy Roddick, a towering figure in US tennis, watched on from one of the hospitality boxes dotted around Arthur Ashe Stadium.
It has now been 21 years since Roddick won the US Open on the same court, defeating Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final. His victory at the time seemed like a perfect torch-passing moment to a new era of US players as the careers of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, who had won the US Open and Australian Open respectively in the previous year, approached the end.
Instead, as greater, more talented players established themselves at the top of the pecking order, the 2003 US Open would mark an abrupt end to the dominance of American men in tennis. It was Roddick’s only grand slam title and it has remained an insurmountable achievement for his future compatriots. Finally, after edging past Tiafoe, Fritz will attempt to end two decades of misery in the men’s draw at the US Open as he faces Jannik Sinner, the world No 1, in his first grand slam final on Sunday.
In some ways, it feels like Fritz has been positioned for this exact moment by everyone around him. He is the son of the former top-10 player and US Open quarter-finalist Kathy May, while his father and uncle were also professional tennis players.
Fritz’s heritage proved a helpful springboard to early success. He enjoyed an outstanding junior career, rising to No 1 in the rankings and becoming one of the next great hopes of US tennis in a generation of talented young US players that included Tiafoe, Tommy Paul and Reilly Opelka.
But his rise on the professional tour has turned out to be incremental rather than inevitable. Having turned professional in 2015, the 26-year-old spent a long time trying to figure out his game and gain confidence before he reached the top 20 for the first time in 2022. Until the US Open last year, even though he had already reached the top 10, he still had only one grand slam quarter-final to his name.
Across the ATP tour, there are many quicker, stronger and more formidable pure athletes than Fritz and it has taken time for him to complement his excellent serve with a well-rounded game that is good enough to compete with the best. In order to bridge some of those physical gaps between him and his opponents, Fritz has had to draw upon his competitive instincts, his ability to scrap until the death and rise to the important moments instead of cowering from them.
In addition to a top-five ranking, a Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells in 2022 and the distinction of so far being the most successful American tennis player of his generation, Fritz’s mental toughness has continuously driven him forward.
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But one of the great challenges in the sport awaits Fritz in the final. Sinner has not necessarily played his best tennis in New York this year. He is not in the ruthlessly efficient form he demonstrated en route to his Australian Open title, but he has won 54 matches this year, losing only five, and his record on hard courts in 2024 now stands at 34-2.
Sinner’s 15-1 tie-break record since June is also reflective of his current headspace: every time he steps on the court, he expects to produce his best tennis in the important moments and win. On Sunday afternoon, as he chases history in front of a raucous home crowd, Fritz faces the challenge of outplaying the best player in the world.
