Playing in his third straight Grand Slam final, top-seeded Alexander Zverev captured his second title, defeating Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2 on Sunday for the U.S. Open championship at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York.
After failing in his first three opportunities to win one of the sport’s major crowns, the German has prevailed twice in his three attempts in 2026. The world’s No. 2-ranked player won the French Open in June.
The loss by the eighth-seeded Shelton extended American futility in the ATP Grand Slam events past the 23-year mark. Andy Roddick remains the last U.S. man to win a major when he triumphed in the 2003 U.S. Open, a span of 91 consecutive Grand Slams without an American victor.
Zverev, 29, moved his record to 6-0 against Shelton, who will nevertheless rise to a career-high No. 4 in the world rankings on Monday.
Shelton was competing in his first Grand Slam final after a breakthrough quarterfinal win over two-time U.S. Open champion Carlos Alcaraz and a triumph over fellow American Frances Tiafoe in the semifinals.
Trailing two sets to none, Shelton played a brilliant third set to extend the match. After Zverev ran his streak to 66 consecutive holds against Shelton, the 23-year-old got out to a love-40 lead in the 12th game of the set and prolonged the match on a forehand error by the German.
Shelton produced 14 winners and only seven unforced errors in the third set.
But Zverev halted all of Shelton’s momentum and his home-crowd buzz by taking advantage of three unforced errors and a double fault to break in the opening game of the fourth set. He put a stranglehold on the match with another break to lead 5-2 and served it out to prevail in three hours, 33 minutes.
After he won on match point, Zverev went back to the service line, temporarily unaware that he had won.
Zverev was dominant on serve, winning 73.3% (85 of 116) of his points, while Shelton countered at 67.2% (82 of 122). Zverev also was brilliant at the net, converting 86.2% of his points (25 of 29).
The big-serving Shelton hit 10 aces, down from the 20 he recorded in four sets vs. Tiafoe.
Shelton got off to a nervous start in the match. He double-faulted at 30-40 in the first and last games of the opening set to hand the first round to Zverev.
The feisty American encouraged the home crowd to get more involved and tried to inject more of his own energy into the second set, as Zverev continually slowed the pace with double-digit bounces between missed first serves. Both players held serve throughout the dozen games of the set, but Zverev raced off to a 5-0 lead in the tiebreaker and improved to 5-0 vs. Shelton in all-time breakers.
–Field Level Media
