Much has been said in recent years about the “return” of American men’s tennis. While this resurgence is somewhat difficult to outline and define—there’s not really a hard metric with which to measure it—it can perhaps be understood as an attempt to reach the kind of dominance benchmark of the glory days of the 1990s and 2000s, when American players like Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, and Andy Roddick dominated the game. (The real bell-ringing moment, of course, would happen when an American man next wins a Grand Slam tournament—a feat that hasn’t been achieved since Roddick clinched the US Open back in 2003.
) But this particular threshold is flawed, if not dismissive—just look harder at the current numbers. For the first time since 1997 , there are now five American men in the top 20 on the ATP Tour: Taylor Fritz (12), Ben Shelton (13), Tommy Paul (14), Sebastian Korda (16), and Frances Tiafoe (20), who reattained this level just a few days ago by making it to the finals of the Cincinnati Open, where he fell to world number one Jannik Sinner. As I see it: We are so back! Fritz, 26, has been the top-ranked American male for the past few seasons (with both Shelton and Paul giving him a run for his money) and, statistically, is the guy with the best shot of ending the American mens’ two-decade Slam drought.
Of Fritz’s eight tour championships—which include a victory over Rafael Nadal in the finals of the prestigious Indian Wells tournament in 2022—two have come in 2024: Delray Beach and Eastbourne, UK. Notably, he retains the tour’s fourth-highest serve rating, and he averages 11 aces per match. He’s had strong results in 2024’s Slams, too, reaching the quarterfinals at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
Tall, lithe, good-looking, and with a matter-of-fact playing style, Fritz is the Southern Californian-born star figure in the American mens’ game, attracting sponsors as wide-ranging as Boss and Chipotle. (Fritz’s go-to order, he tells me: “I’m not going to lie—it’s pretty mild: bowl, white rice, no beans, then chicken, a little bit of sour cream, cheese, and guac. I get the salad vinaigrette on the side.
”) Fritz picked up another major accolade in 2024: a bronze medal in doubles (playing with Paul) at the Paris Games. “We really wanted to get a medal—obviously we really wanted gold, but it meant a lot to be able to get the bronze with one of my closest friends and to bring one home for the States.” Laughing, he adds of the atmosphere on Roland Garros’s Court Philippe Chatrier: “I definitely didn’t feel like I was getting that kind of love during the actual French Open.
” (Fritz is not afraid to make his opinions known, and got into some hot water online when he “shushed” the crowd during the French earlier this year.) Fritz says that clay—the surface on which the Olympics was played—is “definitely not my favorite,” and that the third-place finish there was a bit of redemption for the nickname “Claylor,” which sprung up and took hold on tennis Twitter earlier this year. “I don’t love it, but we embrace it,” he says.
All of this is to say: Fritz should be feeling confident going into the US Open. “The serve this year has been better,” he says when I ask him what’s working in 2024, as has simply “competing through a lot of tough matches, getting the wins.” He adds that his preparation for the Open won’t differ from his usual routine: “Plenty of practice before the tournament, trying to feel really good about my game—it can be a very stressful the first week, there’s lots of pressure, but I’ve learned to deal with it over the years.
” His American colleagues also seem poised to have good runs in New York. Korda recently won his second tour title (and first in three years), the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington. (As it happens, his father, Petr Korda, won the same tournament 32 years ago.
) Tiafoe is seemingly back on form—he almost took the first set in his Cincy final against Sinner—while Paul has taken two titles this year himself at Queen’s Club in London and in Dallas. Shelton has one, from Houston. As for going all the way? Fritz thinks he can get there—and, as many have said (and bemoaned) over the decades, tennis really is a mental game.
“You just have to stay motivated,” he says, bluntly. “You have to lock in and focus.”.
