The garbage trucks were audible inside Arthur Ashe Stadium. At 2:34 a.m. the lower bowl was nearly full, Honey Deuces souvenir cups were running out, and Ben Shelton and Carlos Alcaraz were about to start a fifth set.
Shelton won it. He beat the defending champion 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 6-3 1-6 7-6 (10-7) in four hours and 28 minutes, and the finish, at 3:33 a.m., was the latest in US Open history. The old record was 2:50 a.m., set by Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner in their 2022 quarter-final.
How it turned
The opening set took 70 minutes. Shelton broke Alcaraz to force a tie-break and still lost it. “I was pissed,” he admitted. But that late break gave him belief. “I knew that my serve was only going to get better, and if I’d already dialed in the return to the point that I could break him, I thought my chances were good to get that second set.”
They were. He broke three times in a runaway second set, then played more freely. He saved all three break points he faced in the third, which he took in 48 minutes after a 19-shot rally at 30-40 and a long exchange for set point. Alcaraz struck back in the fourth, breaking Shelton three times, and pushed it to a decider.
Neither man could break in the fifth. Alcaraz saved two break points at 15-40 with a forehand volley winner, then held with a 122mph serve. In the first-to-10 tie-break Shelton pounded a 146mph serve for 8-7 and finished with another, out wide, at 146mph.
The numbers favored the winner in the places that counted. Shelton won 70 percent of his first-serve points and 57 percent behind his second, and 54 of his 156 serves went unreturned. Alcaraz hit 38 winners to Shelton’s 34 but made 53 unforced errors to 35. Shelton took 55 percent of rallies lasting four shots or fewer.
After the last point
“That was a war, epic match. I mean, so physical,” Shelton said in the bowels of the stadium, in place of a formal press conference. “Carlos, one of the greatest champions in our sport already at 23 years old. It’s ridiculous, the amount of stuff he comes up with sometimes, but the most enjoyable match that I’ve had in my career, for sure.”
He also spoke of the talk with his father and coach, Bryan, during the match. “Win or lose, have a smile on our face.” Asked at 3:46 a.m. whether he could recover in time for Friday’s semi-final, he said: “Two days? Yeah.”
Shelton meets Frances Tiafoe on Friday, an all-American semi-final.
Sources
- 2026 US Open – Men's singles – Wikipedia
- US Open 2026 quarter-final: Ben Shelton stuns Carlos Alcaraz in thriller after latest ever finish – as it happened
