Tim Henman says who he thinks is the best American player out of Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton

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Taylor Fritz has lift-off at the ATP Finals after comfortably beating Lorenzo Musetti in his first match at the tournament.

During the match, Tim Henman spotted something about Fritz that was very impressive, with the American easily dispatching Musetti, who was only called up to play when Novak Djokovic withdrew.

Fritz has discussed Carlos Alcaraz this week, and he will need to recover quickly from the win over Musetti, with the Spaniard to lock horns with the American as soon as Tuesday.

With the year drawing to a close for the ATP stars, Fritz can still be eclipsed as the United States’ number one by Ben Shelton, and he will be hoping to secure enough points to maintain that position.

The situation has now been discussed by Henman, and he’s delivered his verdict on who he thinks is the better player out of the two players vying to be the number one from the USA.

• READ MORE: Taylor Fritz shares what he enjoyed about his own game in win over Lorenzo Musetti

Tim Henman says who the best American player is right now

Shelton is moving on up and is up to number five in the world rankings, but he won’t want to stop there, with his eyes on becoming the best American player in an official sense.

Fritz is typically very reliable out on the court, and with Shelton losing his first match to Alexander Zverev, his chances of getting through now look somewhat bleak.

Henman has been quizzed on who he feels is currently the best American player on the ATP Tour, citing Fritz as still being the best – just!

He said on Sky Sports Tennis: “That is healthy competition but also sharing the load. We saw it at the US Open.

“I thought there would be more American players in that conversation (for top-ranked). Tommy Paul has been higher in the rankings, some of the younger ones coming up, like Seb Korda, he has been playing well. Learner Tien beat Norrie in France.

“There is always that healthy group of US players on the men’s side. For me, Fritz is the leader, but Shelton has had an impressive year as well.

How the top 10 American players currently rank on the ATP Tour

As Henman alludes to, the future does look very bright for American tennis, with players like Tien set to be the flag bearer for the sport in the United States in the future.

However, some of the players are lesser ranked at the moment, and it does look as though the nation is some way off having two players like Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras back in the nineties to start winning multiple major titles.

Fritz does feel like the most likely, and he will hope to put in a strong showing this week in Turin and ensure that he remains ahead of Shelton when the year-end rankings are released.

The 28-year-old looks ready to win a Grand Slam title but with each passing year he fails to do so, the challenge will get harder, especially with Jannik Sinner and Alcaraz playing at the level they have for the last two years.