Alexander Zverev Claims Second US Open Title as Ben Shelton Falls Short
The wait goes on for American men’s tennis. Twenty-three years and counting.
On a loud, restless night at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Alexander Zverev walked straight into the storm and walked out a two-time grand slam champion, beating Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6, 5-7, 6-2 to claim his first US Open title.
Shelton, the 23-year-old with the booming lefty serve and the city in his corner, had come to New York chasing history. Not since Andy Roddick in 2003 had an American man lifted a major trophy. Roddick himself sat courtside, watching the heir-apparent run into a wall of experience and steel.
For Zverev, 29, this was the culmination of a season that has changed the shape of his career. He broke through for his first major at Roland-Garros in June; now he owns hard court and clay in the same year. With world No.1 Jannik Sinner out injured and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz removed from his path by Shelton, the German saw the draw open and refused to blink.
He played like a man who knows these chances do not come often.
Shelton arrived with the swagger of youth and a serve that had ripped through the field, but he also carried an 0-5 record against Zverev. That became 0-6 by night’s end, and for long stretches it felt like the German had him exactly where he wanted him.
The first set set the tone. Zverev absorbed the early pace, read the patterns, and pounced. He took the opener 6-3, quieting a crowd desperate for an American surge. The second set tightened, Shelton finding more first serves, more forehands, more noise. But in the breaker, Zverev’s composure told. Another set in the bank, another mountain for Shelton to climb.
This is where Zverev once used to wobble. The scars of the 2020 US Open final, when he led Dominic Thiem by two sets and still lost, ran deep. On Monday night, a flicker of that old tension returned. Up two sets to love, he loosened just enough. Shelton, sensing a lifeline, raised his level and stole the third set 7-5, igniting Arthur Ashe and dragging the contest into dangerous territory for the favourite.
The hope didn’t last long.
Shelton opened the fourth set by dropping his serve, handing momentum straight back. From there, Zverev shut the door with brutal efficiency. The rallies shortened, the errors dried up, the German’s weight of shot pushed Shelton further and further behind the baseline. What had briefly looked like a five-set classic in the making turned into a procession.
“It’s been a loud crowd, but it hasn’t affected him. He’s been locked in, Zverev,” Jelena Dokic observed on Nine, and it showed. So locked in, in fact, that when Shelton’s final ball missed, Zverev initially didn’t realise he had won the championship.
“He didn’t know! My goodness. That is incredible,” Todd Woodbridge said on the broadcast. “That shows you how in the zone Zverev has been in this match today. He didn’t know the match was over, he didn’t know he had won the second grand slam title of his career. What a season it has become, and now time to celebrate.”
The journey to this moment has not been straightforward. On the court in New York, Zverev flirted with disaster early. Lorenzo Sonego came within two points of sending him home in the first round. Quentin Halys dragged him into a fifth set in the second. Zverev survived, steadied, and built his fortnight from those escapes.
Off the court, his career has been shadowed by domestic abuse allegations from ex-girlfriends Olya Sharypova and Brenda Patea. A trial in Germany ended in 2024 with a settlement with Patea, the case dropped without a verdict or admission of guilt. The noise around him has been constant, the scrutiny unrelenting.
“He’s had his battles on and off the court throughout his career and this year is turning into a magic moment for him,” Woodbridge said.
On Monday night, Zverev chose to look upward and inward. During the trophy presentation, he acknowledged the partisan crowd with a mix of humour and respect.
“I know today 99.9 per cent of the people wanted Ben to win, so I’m very sorry first of all,” he said. “But second, it was an incredible atmosphere to play in. Even though I know that the crowd was against me, the crowd was always incredibly fair.”
He then turned to the small circle that has carried him through the grind.
“We went almost 30 years without winning a grand slam title, and now we’ve won two in a span of three months,” he said of his team. “I think God has seen how hard we worked, how much we suffered, how much pain we went through, and I think 2026 is the outcome of all the years that happened before.”
The most emotional words, though, were reserved for his mother, Irina, herself a former professional player, and the person who stood firm when doctors painted a bleak picture after his childhood diabetes diagnosis.
“When your four-year-old son is diagnosed with diabetes and doctors in the office tell you that life and sports will be very limited for that child, it takes a very strong mother to say 'my son will be whatever he wants to be',” Zverev said.
“If he wants to be a tennis player, he’ll be a tennis player. If he wants to do something else, he’ll do something else, but this illness will not define us. I’m happy that we worked through it, and we’re doing things that we’re doing right now. My mother is the most important and strongest person I know because it takes an unbelievably strong woman to do what she did.”
On the other side of the net, Shelton handled defeat with the same presence that had marked his run through the draw. The American, who had taken out Alcaraz and lit up the tournament with his shot-making and charisma, tipped his cap to the new champion.
“You’re one of the very best players in the world, maybe the best player in the world this year,” Shelton told Zverev.
The US Open leaves the United States still searching for its next men’s standard-bearer, but it also leaves a clear message: the new power base at the top of the game is still shifting. Zverev, once the nearly man of his generation, now has two slams in his pocket and a season that demands to be taken seriously.
The question for everyone else is simple: who stops him from here?
