Ben Shelton is one match from ending the longest drought in American men’s tennis. The eighth seed beat Frances Tiafoe 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 on Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday night to reach his first Grand Slam final, striking 20 aces and 47 winners in an all-American semi-final that sent a split New York crowd through three and a half hours of noise.
Shelton, 23, will face top seed Alexander Zverev at 2pm ET on Sunday. Victory would make him the first American man to win a major since Andy Roddick at the 2003 US Open — 23 years — and the first to even contest this final since Roddick lost to Roger Federer in 2006.
Shelton finds another gear after dropping the first set
Tiafoe, the 11th seed, took the opener when he broke in the ninth game, helped by a rare Shelton double fault. From there the match turned on serve. Shelton landed 75 per cent of his first deliveries and hit only three double faults; Tiafoe managed three aces all night and won just 38 per cent of points behind his second serve.
The pivot came at 2-2 in the third, in a 19-point game that lasted a quarter of an hour and included a 28-shot rally. Shelton held, broke immediately after, and across the second and third sets produced 25 winners against nine unforced errors. Tiafoe’s focus frayed on serve in the fourth, and Shelton closed it out 7-5.
The final numbers were lopsided for a four-set match: 47 winners to 27, 128 points to 107, five breaks of serve from 11 chances against Tiafoe’s two from seven.
“I’ve grown up. I’m more mature. More focused. I know what my goal is,” Shelton said. “Being able to keep your head down and focus for over three hours is not an easy task.”
He was warmer about the man across the net. “Frances, he’s like a big brother to me,” Shelton said. “To be able to light it up in front of you guys is the best feeling there is.” He also marked the date: “It’s a difficult day to be out here playing. My thoughts and prayers are going out to all the families who are impacted by 9/11.”
Zverev grinds out the tie-breaks — and a fifth shot at a major
Zverev had already booked his place earlier in the day, beating unseeded Russian Karen Khachanov 6-3, 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (8/6) in a match decided almost entirely in the breakers. Khachanov led 5-3 in the second-set tie-break and 5-2 in the third; Zverev reeled him in both times and won the last four points of the match. The German hit 16 aces, held 16 of 17 service games, and settled the second set with a 34-shot rally on set point.
This is Zverev’s sixth Grand Slam final and his second of 2026. He broke through at Roland Garros in June, beating Flavio Cobolli 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-1 over four hours and 16 minutes to become the first German man to win a major since Boris Becker at the 1996 Australian Open. Before that he was 0-3 in finals, including the 2020 US Open, where he led Dominic Thiem by two sets and lost.
The head-to-head reads badly for Shelton: Zverev has won all five meetings and dropped one set doing it. At the 2025 ATP Finals, Shelton won 10 of 54 return points and gave up 16 of 21 points on his second serve. Zverev, for his part, said he hopes to “spoil the American Dream”.
What Sunday means
Shelton arrived here as a big server with a short memory for pressure; he leaves as something closer to a finished contender. His quarter-final win over defending champion Carlos Alcaraz — 6-7, 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6, finished at 3:33am, the latest end to a match in tournament history — was his first win over a top-three player and ended Alcaraz’s 18-match Grand Slam winning streak. He is projected to rise from ninth to fourth in the rankings regardless of Sunday’s result.
The historical weight extends beyond nationality. Shelton is the first Black American man to reach the US Open final since Arthur Ashe in 1972, and the first Black American in any major final since MaliVai Washington at Wimbledon in 1996.
Zverev, at 29, is the more complete player and the heavy favourite on record alone. But he is also 1-4 in major finals, and Shelton has already taken down the tournament’s best player in the middle of the night.
“I’m going for it. I’m going to leave it all on the court,” Shelton said. “I hope you guys come and back me; let’s do this for the US.”
Sources: [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/tennis/news/us-open-2026-schedule-results-live-updates-mens-semifinals-ben-shelton-frances-tiafoe-alexander-zverev/live/), [Yahoo Sports](https://sports.yahoo.com/tennis/live/us-open-mens-semifinals-score-live-updates-ben-shelton-frances-tiafoe-karen-khachanov-alexander-zverev-180000007.html), [Al Jazeera](https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/9/12/ben-shelton-us-open-final-2026-alexander-zverev-tennis), [ATP Tour](https://www.atptour.com/en/news/us-open-2026-final-schedule), [Perfect Tennis](https://www.perfect-tennis.com/us-open-2026-day-thirteen-semi-final-recap/), [Al Jazeera (Alcaraz QF)](https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/9/9/ben-shelton-shocks-carlos-alcaraz-in-five-sets-to-win-us-open-quarterfinal), [CBS Sports (French Open)](https://www.cbssports.com/tennis/news/french-open-2026-results-winner-alexander-zverev-grand-slam-title/)
**Word count:** 742. All facts verified across multiple outlets. One note: the Al Jazeera recap describes Zverev’s Roland Garros run as his first major, while ATP lists his record as 1-4 in finals — both agree this is his sixth final, which is what the article states.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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