It was a picture-perfect day for Taylor Fritz to win the men’s US Open final. The weather was cool and still. The sun streaming into Arthur Ashe Stadium stayed off the court, out of his face. But most importantly, an all-American crowd—including pop singer Taylor Swift, among other glitterati from sports and screen—was firmly rooting for Fritz. It promised to be a beautiful afternoon, the kind that can define a summer—or a life, in Fritz’s case. But then Jannik Sinner had to ruin it.

On Sunday, the world No. 1 made quick work of Fritz, defeating the American in a clinical straight-sets victory that lasted just over two hours en route to claiming the US Open – the second Grand Slam title of his emerging career. As the Italian climbed into the stands to celebrate with his support team (“Bravo, Jannik,” singer Seal cooed as he hugged him. “Forza”), Fritz sat slumped in his chair, hands on his head, contemplating what might have been.

“I’m sorry I didn’t do it this time,” Fritz said after failing to become the first American in 21 years to win his home tournament. “But I’m going to keep working at it and next time I’ll do it.” The urge to sympathize was almost too great. “You’ll get it,” ESPN anchor Chris McKendry offered consolation, but he was outdone by Brian Hainline of the USTA. “We know you’ve got a Grand Slam champion in you,” the federation president said.

Fritz still wore the droopy look at his post-match press conference, but he was careful not to let the outburst of sympathy mutate into pity. In particular, he rejected the idea that his five-set semifinal with compatriot Frances Tiafoe had cost him physically or psychologically, and gave Sinner credit for the improvements he had made to his game — particularly on serve — since they met in the quarterfinals of Indian Wells in 2023. Moreover, Fritz could take a measure of satisfaction from the fact that he had made his biggest strides in a Slam. “There are a lot of positives, of course, and if I get some time to cool down, you know, then I’ll be happy that I made it to the final,” he said. “But right now I’m pretty disappointed with how, just, a lot of things on the court — how I played, how I hit certain shots. It sucks.”

If any American man could make it to this level, it was Fritz, tennis player Todd Marinovich. Like the legendary golden boy quarterback who was groomed for NFL stardom from the start, Fritz was destined for athletic success. His mother, Kathy, was a Top 10 player on the women’s tour. His father, Guy, also a former pro, is a celebrated youth coach. What’s more, Fritz comes from money, which helps in a sport that can be expensive; his great-grandfather founded a department store chain that was eventually acquired by Macy’s.

Like Mike Agassi, a notoriously clumsy tennis father, Guy began training with his son as a toddler, pushing him until he could walk unaided across a balance beam. At their 7,000-square-foot hacienda in Rancho Santa Fe, an affluent enclave just north of San Diego where Bing Crosby once hosted golf tournaments, Guy trained his son in a custom-built home gym and restricted him to a diet rich in vegetables and low in sugar. It should come as no surprise, then, that Fritz cut ties with his father shortly before turning pro—after becoming the first American since Andy Roddick and Donald Young to become the world’s top junior male player in 2015.

A year later, Fritz, still a teenager, married his high school sweetheart, another junior player named Raquel Pedraza. A year after that, they welcomed a son, Jordan. In 2019, barely in his 20s, he was divorced—and after reaching the top 30 in the world rankings in his fourth year on tour. The following year, Covid came and shut everything down.

Any one of these life events should have been enough to nip a budding tennis career in the bud—especially if that career belonged to a young woman. In other words, it’s highly likely that a young woman wouldn’t have the luxury of this typically male entitlement. Take away the money and the privilege, and Fritz could easily have become the kind of player that Tiafoe, Tommy Paul, and other peers look back on with nostalgia in their success, as the talented guy they played with in juniors but who didn’t make it due to a few unfortunate setbacks. But those early challenges did more to hold back than stop Fritz, who has since transitioned into a relationship with social media influencer Morgan Riddle while co-parenting them as best he can while traveling to tournaments around the world. And in short order, he’s gone from overshadowed to the clear standard-bearer of American men’s tennis.

He was in form all year, winning tournaments in Delray Beach and Eastbourne and making his first quarterfinal appearances at the Australian Open and Wimbledon. At the Paris Olympics, he teamed up with Paul to win bronze in doubles. “Bringing something back to the States means everything,” he said after the win. At the US Open, Fritz made the most of Novak Djokovic, who crashed out of his draw, and had quality wins against fourth-seeded Casper Ruud, 2020 US Open finalist Alexander Zverev and Tiafoe – only to lose to Sinner, the junior tennis prodigy who shot to fame by taking a long hiatus from tennis to try soccer and skiing, and proved to be pretty good at both.

There was enough interest in a potential American coronation for the tournament to set up beach chairs outside Arthur Ashe Stadium, in front of the bank of jumbo screens at the south entrance, to accommodate those who couldn’t make it into the arena. But inside, it was Sinner who looked more like a purpose-built tennis machine, blunting Fritz’s powerful ground strokes and redirecting them with more force. At times, Sinner presented his own cracks in the form of seven break points, none of which included a slam-dunk swinging volley that he missed by a country mile. But Fritz only capitalized twice—and the Italian was remarkably quick to get those breaks back.

In his on-court interview after his victory, Sinner stressed his desire to “finish my career without regrets.” Now sharing this year’s four majors with Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, both in their early 20s, it appears that tennis’s Big Three have made way for this Brash Two.

Where that leaves the 26-year-old Fritz is harder to say. With his own peers to contend with in Tiafoe, Paul and 2023 Australian Open quarterfinalist Sebastian Korda, Fritz could easily be overtaken by 21-year-old Ben Shelton – a reluctant American prodigy who has quickly established himself as a force to be reckoned with. This may have been Fritz’s best chance to break through, on a perfect day while he can still reach Sinner’s level.

The idea that Fritz would never recover from this defeat, that he had not completed the perfect picture, devastated him to his core. “I just wanted to play better and give myself a better chance,” he said, suppressing his emotions. “It’s really disappointing now. I feel like, I don’t know, I feel like the fans, American fans, have wanted a male champion for a long time, and I’m just, I don’t know, I’m pretty upset about how I played. I feel like, I don’t know, I feel like I almost let a lot of people down.”

But the fact that he made it this far at all, an astonishing achievement, should not be forgotten.