New York, Sep 9 (SocialNews.XYZ) After his quest to become the first American man to capture his home Grand Slam since Andy Roddick did in 2003, ended with a loss to world no. 1 Jannik Sinner at the US Open final, Taylor Fritz said he "let a lot of people down," who were waiting to witness the history at the Flushing Meadows.

The world No. 12 American was the first man representing America to contest a major final since Roger Federer defeated Roddick at Wimbledon in 2009. He fell to World No. 1 Sinner 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 after a strong run to his first major final.

"I feel like American fans have been wanting a men's champion for a long time, and I don't know, I'm pretty upset with how I played. I feel like I almost let a lot of people down," Fritz said in a post-match press conference.

The 26-year-old American outdueled No. 8 Casper Ruud and No. 4 Alexander Zverev on his way to the final. He was happy with his best run at a major but also showed his disappointment and bittersweet feelings after the loss.

"There's obviously a lot of positives, and when I get some time to cool down, then I'll be happy about the fact that I made it to the finals and stuff like that. But right now I'm pretty disappointed in how a lot of things on the court (went), how I played, how I hit certain shots. It sucks. I'm pretty upset with how I played. I feel like I almost let a lot of people down," said Fritz.

Sinner was 54-5 on the season coming into the match and had claimed five titles alone in 2024, including the Australian Open. Fritz noted that his opponent had grown leaps and bounds as a player since the first time they met at Indian Wells in 2021 -- when the American scored a routine 6-4, 6-3 win over the Italian.

"I'd say he's definitely improved a little bit since I beat him in straight sets at Indian Wells in 2021," Fritz said with a laugh. "If I want to (look back) to 2021 Indian Wells, the serve and the movement are massive improvements now. (Back then) I could find myself in a lot of return games just off of his first serve.

"I felt like I could get myself in points off of his first serve every time. Then it was much easier to hurt him from the ground, as well. And he's much faster now, a lot better out of the corners," he said.

Fritz further noted seven matches he played in this major will only help his game moving forward -- and just possibly propel him toward ending that burdensome drought at the majors in the future.

"I think the biggest thing is [that] I played solid this week, but I played very within myself. I don't think at any point I was, like, 'Wow, I'm playing incredible' or 'I'm playing out of my mind.' I think that's just extremely reassuring to me that I was able to get to this point, just playing solid tennis. I know that there's still a lot of room for improvement," said Fritz.

"And something I've said throughout my entire career, whether it's when I won my first ATP point or I won my first Challenger or I made my first Round of 16 or whatever it is, I've always said once I do something once, I just feel a lot more confident in being able to do it again. That's something that's always stuck with me.

"Sometimes it's taken me some time to get to a certain achievement, but I've always felt like once I've done something, I gain a lot of confidence that I can do it again. I feel like it's repeatable," he signed off.