U.S. women keep winning Slam trophies and appeared in the last four finals

American women, meanwhile, occupy four of the top nine places in the WTA rankings and five of the top 11. They keep earning spots in title matches — at least one has participated in each of the past four Slam finals, winning two.

“The women have been carrying for a very, very long time,” Fritz acknowledged with a smile.

It helped, of course, to have Serena Williams — 23 major singles championships — and Venus Williams — seven — but there also were titles collected by Coco Gauff, Madison Keys, Sofia Kenin and Sloane Stephens since 2017.

Now, perhaps, it’s the men’s turn?

“For sure, there’s going to be a lot of hype around them going into the U.S. Open,” said Jessica Pegula, the American who was the runner-up to No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka at Flushing Meadows last year. “I know they love playing there and want to do well there, too.”

Been quite a while, as everyone knows: Andy Roddick’s U.S. Open triumph in 2003 was the most recent Slam title anywhere for a man from the country — a fact the current crop has heard more often than they’d care to remember.