The US Open scores handed American men their strongest showing in years, with 15 of them reaching the third round, the most since 2002. But the best-known name in the group, Taylor Fritz, was gone by Saturday after blowing a two-set lead, a reminder that depth has not yet turned into a title.
That is why the tournament has drawn so much attention now. Mary Joe Fernandez said before play began that this was the major most wide open for Americans, and the numbers have backed her up: six American men were seeded in the top 20, 18 men from the United States were in the draw, and 14 sat in the Top 100, more than any other country.
The opening had only widened by the time the second week arrived. Novak Djokovic was out in the first round, Jannik Sinner was absent with a knee injury, Alexander Zverev needed five sets to survive his first two matches after becoming the top seed, and Carlos Alcaraz arrived as the second seed and defending champion after a long layoff with a wrist injury. Felix Auger-Aliassime was bounced in the second round, and the bracket looked less like a fortified major than a gap waiting to be used.
That gap has given the Americans a real chance, but it has also exposed how much still has to go right. Fritz, the No. 9 seed and the last American man to reach a major final, lost the 2024 US Open final to Sinner and then exited on Saturday in a defeat that came after he had led by two sets. Brandon Nakashima was the only one of the six American top-20 seeds who had already lost heading into play Saturday, while Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul were still carrying the American flag deeper into the second week.
Shelton had already won titles this summer in Dallas, Munich, Stuttgart and Montreal, then survived an overnight win Friday to keep moving. Tiafoe rallied from two sets down in his opening round and did not drop another set on the way to the fourth round. Paul was already there when play resumed Saturday. Together they have kept alive the possibility that American men might finally turn a favorable draw into something bigger than a statistic.
That is the part still unresolved. The USTA’s release touting 15 third-round American men shows the scale of the opening, and it matches the wider reality of a men’s field without its usual guardrails. But the last American man to win any Grand Slam title was Andy Roddick 23 years ago, and the burden now falls on the survivors to do more than make noise. As Tiafoe put it, they still have to beat seven guys.
