Don’t count out the American men — or man — just yet.
The last representative, Taylor Fritz, doesn’t look ready to go anywhere.
The fourth seed is headed back to the quarterfinals at the US Open, after his impressive straight sets 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 victory over No. 21 Tomas Machac at Louis Armstrong Stadium.
The early departures of No. 6 Ben Shelton, No. 14 Tommy Paul and No. 17 Frances Tiafoe left only Fritz. If that brought any added pressure, he didn’t show it in reaching the quarterfinals in Queens for the third straight year.
Fritz, 27, conceded just 13 points on his dominant serve without facing a break point in the brief one-hour and 38-minute rout.
He broke Machac late in each of the first two sets to take a commanding lead.
In the third, a Machac double fault gave Fritz an early break, and he cruised from there.
After dropping a set in his previous two matches, he didn’t have nearly as much trouble.
Fritz did enough in the return game and was in complete control with his overpowering serve, notching 14 aces and winning an absurd 35 of 39 points on his first serve.
Fritz advances to face the No. 7 Novak Djokovic/Jan-Lennard Struff winner on Tuesday.
Last summer, he broke through here to reach the final, where he lost to Jannik Sinner.
In doing so, Fritz became the first American man to play for a Grand Slam title in 15 years. The last American to win a major was Andy Roddick 22 years ago at the US Open.
The hope was that the drought could end in this tournament.
While only one American reached the fourth round, a disappointing result after four US men got to that point a year ago, Fritz is carrying the torch for the time being pretty well.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
