Zverev Wins US Open, Outlasts Shelton in Four Sets
The German star beat Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6, 5-7, 6-2 in the Arthur Ashe final to claim his second Grand Slam title of the season, while America's wait for a champion stretches back to 2003.
It was 1-0 in the second-set tiebreak at Arthur Ashe Stadium when Alexander Zverev passed Ben Shelton at the net, then immediately followed it with a shot straight into the corner to go up 5-0. The stands, packed with fans cheering for the home favorite, fell quiet within a couple of points. Shelton clawed back to 2-5, but the German settled the crowd with two deep serves the American could not return, and the tiebreak went his way.
That was only a sign of what came next. Shelton broke Zverev’s serve for the first time in the entire match in the third set, after 66 games without a single break, and pulled one set back. It looked like New York was about to get the drama it had waited two weeks for. But the first game of the fourth set produced a 24-shot rally that ended with a Shelton forehand sailing wide, and the match snapped back onto the course where the German had been clearly the better player. He served out the rest of the match without a hitch and, after nearly three hours on court, claimed the trophy 6:3, 7:6 (7:2), 5:7, 6:2.
“I know that 99.9 percent of people wanted Ben to win today, so first of all I’m really sorry,” Zverev said immediately after being declared the winner, with the trophy still sitting beside him on the court. “But, on the other hand, it was an incredible atmosphere to play in.”
This is Zverev’s second Grand Slam title of the season and the second of his career. He won Roland Garros in May, reached the Wimbledon final in July, and is now champion in New York as well. He is now 6-0 against Shelton in their head to head meetings and has won 13 of the last 14 sets they have played since losing the first set to him in Cincinnati in 2024. The winner’s prize money is 5.5 million dollars, the same amount Elena Rybakina received for the women’s title, making it the largest prize pool in Grand Slam history.
Why America is still waiting for a champion
The last American to win a Grand Slam title in the men’s game was Andy Roddick, all the way back in 2003, at this very tournament. Twenty three years have passed since then, and Shelton is only the second American after Roddick to even reach a Grand Slam final. The crowd at Arthur Ashe knew this well, cheering loudly for the home player from the first game, far louder than Zverev is used to in his matches.
Shelton carries another kind of historical weight. He is the first Black American to reach the US Open final since Arthur Ashe in 1972, the man the tournament’s main stadium is named after, and Ashe’s widow, Jeanne Moutoussamy Ashe, watched the match from the stands. Shelton is also the first Black American to reach the final of any Grand Slam since Malivai Washington at Wimbledon in 1996.
After the match, speaking to his team, Zverev let out an emotion he rarely shows on court.
“I think God saw how hard we worked, how much we suffered, how much pain we went through, and I think 2026 is the result of all the years that came before it.”
Shelton, despite the loss, did not hold back his praise for his opponent.
“You are one of the best players in the world, maybe the best player in the world this year,” the American said, addressing Zverev at the trophy ceremony.
The statistics back up that assessment. Shelton made 11 unforced errors in the first set alone, compared to just three for Zverev, and double faulted twice on break point, a sign of the pressure he was under in the biggest match of his career. Still, the lost final brings him something tangible: on Monday he rises from ninth to fourth in the ATP rankings, a career high, after knocking out Carlos Alcaraz in an epic five set match that finished at 3:33 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, and then beating fellow American Frances Tiafoe in Friday evening’s semifinal.
In New York, Zverev also became known for an odd habit, bouncing the ball off the court before serving, which irritated opponents throughout the tournament. Karen Khachanov mentioned it after losing to the German in the semifinal, and other players noticed the same thing.
“I have no idea why. I don’t do it on purpose. I saw a stat that I’ve bounced the ball off the ground around 12,000 times, or something like that. It’s pretty funny. I’m not counting them in my head or trying to reach some number,” Zverev said earlier that week, before carrying the habit into the final as well.
The winner of the first set in the US Open final has gone on to win 31 of the last 34 finals, and Zverev made full use of that trend. We reported before the final that both Shelton and Zverev had earned their spot in the title match, and that the women’s champion, Elena Rybakina, was already known. Now that the men’s winner is known too, the Grand Slam season is over, with the next test for the Americans and everyone else not arriving until January, at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
