Welcome to our channel will Taylor Fritz versus Francis tefo finally yield Andy rodic successor at Grand Slam nobody it seems has grown more tired of Andy rodic's name coming up this time of year than Andy rodic the former tennis player turned podcaster is the last American man to win a grand slam singles title since his retirement a dozen years ago nobody else has even come close enough to play the last match of the tournament with the trophy and sight and at the US Open especially rodic's 2003 Triumph is not usually invoked as a great memory for American men's tennis but 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 rodic said on his latest episode of served with Andy rodic I've gotten more juice out of the squeeze than any human has gotten out of anything ever I'd love nothing more than for an American to win on Sunday I hate it I get this anxious feeling every time they have to answer for it I expletive hate it for them I want them to have it for the first time in 15 years there's at least a chance rodic will no longer have to bear that burden Friday's US Open semi-final between no 12C Taylor Fritz and no 20c Francis Tao will be a historic moment in this era of men's tennis regardless list of who wins there will be an American flag on the scoreboard at a grand slam final it's about dang time no disrespect to rodic whose remarkable career included 32 ATP titles a no one ranking five grand slam finals and would have been a whole lot better if not for a personal Tormentor named Roger Federer but 21 years is long past the expiration date for a one-time slam Champion to occupy this much space in the tennis discourse in a country of 333 million people that has found a way to produce Elite champions in nearly every other major sport including women's tennis by the way it's both remarkable and unacceptable that this slam streak is now old enough to drink a beer for everyone's sake can we just finally do this thing and move on doesn't even matter who Taylor Francis fight it out between yourselves Friday and then go get him Sunday at this point it's not just a matter of American Pride it's so that literally none of you including Ben Shelton Sebastian Corda Tommy Paul and whoever comes after them ever have to answer the question again we openly speak about it tafo said after beating Gregor 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 time last year bin is so dang good it's only a matter of time and the game is open it's not like it once was where you make a quarterfinal and you play Rafa natal and you're looking at flights that's just the reality now it's totally different and no one is unbeatable especially later in the season where maybe guys are a little bit cooked not as fresh and they're vulnerable it's pretty exciting I'll be completely honest here even though it's true that the entire Dynamic of men's tennis has changed now that natal and Federer have aged out of the sport and Novak jovic isn't far behind them I did not think any of the Americans from the TFO Fritz generation would be the ones to end the streak the gap between their level of success and the top Echelon now occupied by younger stars like Carlos alcarez and genic CER just seemed a little bit too big and maybe it is though alarz went out of the US Open early cner is still around and hunting his second slam of the year make no mistake he's a significant favorite to win the title but at this point it's not inconceivable for either fritz or TFO to win this thing they're both playing great tennis they both own a previous win over Center and Sunday whoever emerges from their semi-final will have a whole stadium a whole country really behind them that would would be awesome for the fans to be guaranteed that one of us would be going to the finals Fritz said after he won his quarterfinal American fans deserve it after American men made so much history from Arthur Ashley to Jimmy Connor and John mackenro to the Ander agasi Pete SRE rivalry it's been a long wait for something like this way too long the reasons for this 20-year downturn have been analyzed as intensely as the zuder film and there's no shortage of theories and excuses when the sport became more International Americans and Australians by the way had less of an advantage Europeans grow up playing on Clay so they learn how to construct points better than the serve in forehand style that dominates American tennis the USDA development system wasn't doing enough or maybe was doing too much tennis cost too much so the best young athletes go to other sports or maybe it's just that there wasn't much space for American talent when three of