Alexander Zverev reached the US Open semi-finals for the third time with a 6-2, 7-5, 6-1 win over Botic van de Zandschulp on Wednesday night — roughly 18 hours after he had finished watching Ben Shelton knock out Carlos Alcaraz in a match that ended at 3.34am.
The German top seed made no attempt to hide how he had spent the small hours. “I watched Shelton-Alcaraz until 3.30am last night. I did not go to bed,” Zverev said. “I was up late, I was watching TV because I was sleeping in until 1pm anyway.”
The insomnia cost him nothing. Zverev broke van de Zandschulp four times, dropped serve once and closed out the third set in 26 minutes to book a Friday semi-final against Karen Khachanov.
The match that kept New York — and Zverev — awake
Shelton’s 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7) win over the defending champion ran four hours and 28 minutes and finished at 3.34am, the latest conclusion in the tournament’s history. Alcaraz, back on tour after more than four months out with a wrist injury, led 5-3 in the deciding tie-break before Shelton reeled off five of the last six points, sealing it with a 146mph serve.
It was Shelton’s first win over a top-three opponent at the 18th attempt. Zverev, watching from his hotel, was generous about it.
- “Credit to Ben, he played an unbelievable match”
- “[Friday] is going to be a fun semi-final between two Americans”
That all-American semi-final — Shelton against Frances Tiafoe — guarantees the United States a men’s Grand Slam finalist for the first time since Andy Roddick at the 2009 Wimbledon. It also means the 3.34am finish, already the fourth match this fortnight to run past 2am, will follow the tournament into its final weekend as a scheduling story rather than a curiosity. Martina Navratilova called the late finishes “not ok and not normal”; the tournament has confirmed no change to its dual-session format.
Sixteen hours on court, then three straight-sets wins
Zverev’s fortnight began in a very different register. He spent more than four and a half hours on court in each of his opening two rounds, becoming the first men’s No.1 seed in the Open era to go five sets in both the first and second rounds of a major. His total court time on the way to the last four is 16 hours and 40 minutes — the most by any man reaching a US Open semi-final since 1991.
“In other tournaments I would have been out in the first round,” Zverev said. “But here I can fight back and play best-of-five, play four and a half hours and somehow win the match and somehow get into the tournament. And then I start playing better throughout the tournament.”
The numbers back the claim. His last three matches have all been straight-sets wins, and he has now held serve 31 consecutive times.
He is the top seed only because Jannik Sinner, the world No.1 and reigning Wimbledon champion, withdrew on the eve of the tournament with a knee problem, lifting Zverev from third to second in the rankings. The draw opened further when Alcaraz went out at 3.34am on Wednesday morning.
The Professor, and a shot at No.1
Khachanov, who reached the semi-finals when Alexander Blockx retired injured trailing 6-2, 7-5, 3-2, is a familiar figure in the locker room. “We call him ‘The Professor’, actually, because he knows everything about tennis,” Zverev said of the Russian.
Zverev arrives in the last four with a season that has already rewritten one German record. His 23 Grand Slam match wins in 2026 surpass Boris Becker’s 22 from 1989, and his 51 tour-level victories lead the ATP. He is the only man to reach the semi-finals at all four majors this year: beaten by Alcaraz in the longest Australian Open semi-final on record, 5hr 27min; champion at Roland Garros, where he beat Flavio Cobolli in five sets for his first major title and Germany’s first since Becker in 1996; and a Wimbledon finalist, losing to Sinner.
New York remains the outlier. Zverev led Dominic Thiem by two sets in the 2020 final here and lost, and that defeat framed five years of near-misses before Paris finally broke the drought. Two more wins would give him a second major inside four months and move him to within 1,800 points of Sinner at the top of the rankings — a position he has never occupied.
He gets Thursday to sleep on it. On current form, he may not bother.
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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