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    • Fritz vs. Tiafoe Already Historic for American Men’s Tennis
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    Fritz vs. Tiafoe Already Historic for American Men’s Tennis

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    For the first time in 15 years, an American is guaranteed a Grand Slam final. Will it be Taylor Fritz or Frances Tiafoe? It doesn’t matter, as long as he wins the title on Sunday.

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    It seems no one gets tired of the recurring name Andy Roddick this time of year more than Andy Roddick.

    The former tennis player turned podcaster is the last American man to win a Grand Slam singles title. Since his retirement 12 years ago, no one else has come close to playing the final match of the tournament with the trophy in sight. And at the US Open in particular, Roddick’s 2003 triumph is often held up not as a great memory for American men’s tennis, but as an annual reminder of how dry the well has been since he left the game.

    And he’s had enough.

    “I want it all to end,” Roddick said on his final episode of “Served with Andy Roddick.”

    “I’ve gotten more juice out of the squeeze than any human being has ever gotten out of anything. I’d love nothing more than for an American to win on Sunday. I hate it, I get a sense of dread every time they have to answer for themselves. I (expletive) hate it for them. I want them to have it.”

    For the first time in 15 years, there’s a chance Roddick won’t have to carry that burden anymore.

    Friday’s US Open semifinal between 12th-seeded Taylor Fritz and 20th-seeded Frances Tiafoe will be a historic moment in this era of men’s tennis. Regardless of who wins, there will be an American flag on the scoreboard at a Grand Slam final.

    It’s about damn time.

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    No disrespect to Roddick, whose remarkable career included 32 ATP titles, a world No. 1 ranking, five Grand Slam finals and would have been a lot better if it weren’t for a personal tormentor named Roger Federer. But 21 is long past the sell-by date for a one-time Slam champion to take up so much space in tennis’s discourse.

    In a country of 333 million that has found a way to produce elite champions in almost every other major sport – including women’s tennis, by the way – it is both remarkable and unacceptable that this streak of Grand Slam-less women is now old enough to drink a beer.

    Can we finally do this and move on, for everyone’s sake? It doesn’t even matter who. Taylor? Frances? Fight it out amongst yourselves on Friday, then go at them on Sunday.

    At this point, it’s not just a matter of American pride. It’s that literally none of you — including Ben Shelton, Sebastian Korda, Tommy Paul, and whoever comes after them — will ever have to answer the question again.

    “We talk about it openly,” Tiafoe said after beating Grigor Dimitrov in the quarterfinals. “We’ve all been knocking on the door. Taylor has been in and out of the top 10, I was top 10 this time last year. Ben is so damn good. It’s just a matter of time.

    “… And the game is open. It’s not like before, when you got to a quarter-final and played Rafa (Nadal) and looked at flights. That’s just the reality. Now it’s totally different and nobody is unbeatable, especially later in the season when guys are maybe a bit cooked, not so fresh, and vulnerable. It’s quite exciting.”

    I’ll be completely honest here: while it’s true that the entire dynamic of men’s tennis has changed with Nadal and Federer leaving the sport and Novak Djokovic not far behind, I didn’t think any of the Americans from the Tiafoe/Fritz generation would be the ones to end the streak. The gulf between their level of success and the pinnacle now occupied by younger stars like Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner just seemed a little too great.

    And maybe that’s true. While Alcaraz is out of the US Open early, Sinner is still there, chasing his second Slam of the year. Make no mistake, he’s a big favorite to win the title.

    But at this point, it’s not unthinkable that Fritz or Tiafoe wins this thing. They’re both playing great tennis. They both have a previous win over Sinner. And on Sunday, whoever comes out of their semifinal will have an entire stadium — an entire country, really — behind them.

    “It would be great if the fans had a guarantee that one of us would go to the final,” Fritz said after winning his quarter-final.

    American fans deserve it. After so much history has been made by American men, from Arthur Ashe to Jimmy Connors to John McEnroe to the Andre Agassi-Pete Sampras rivalry, it has been a long time coming for something like this. Far too long.

    The reasons for this 20-year decline have been analyzed as intensely as the Zapruder film, and there is no shortage of theories and excuses. As the game became more international, Americans (and Australians, for that matter) had less of an advantage. Europeans grow up playing on clay courts, so they learn to construct points better than the serve-and-forehand style that dominates American tennis. The USTA development system did not do enough, or perhaps too much. Tennis costs too much, so the best young athletes go to other sports.

    Or maybe there just wasn’t much room for American talent when three of the best players ever played were active at the same time and winning almost everything.

    But eventually the worm will turn. Maybe, hopefully, this weekend. And if it does, it will be a story that highlights why American tennis still has the potential to be relevant.

    Fritz was born to do this. He is the son of two former professional tennis players, groomed from day 1 to win major titles.

    Tiafoe is the son of immigrants from Sierra Leone and got into the sport because his father was a tennis court maintenance man in College Park, Maryland.

    In this country, both paths to athletic success are possible. And on the final Sunday, one of them will come closer to ultimate glory in the sport than any American since Roddick lost a heartbreaking five-set final to Federer at Wimbledon in 2009.

    It’s time for new milestones in American tennis instead of holding on to trophies won more than two decades ago. Even Roddick agrees.

    Follow Dan Wolken on social media @DanWolken

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