Alexander Zverev has made 2026 his year. Fresh off his breakthrough at the French Open, the German top seed added the U.S. Open trophy on Sunday, beating American Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2 in a final played in front of a New York crowd overwhelmingly hoping for a homegrown champion.
For Shelton, the stakes were historic. The 23-year-old was chasing the first men's Grand Slam title by an American since Andy Roddick won at Flushing Meadows in 2003 — and he would also have been the first Black man to lift the crown since Arthur Ashe in 1968. Instead, Zverev shut the door. Shelton, the No. 8 seed, is now 0-6 against the German and has taken just one other set off him.
It was still a breakout fortnight for the left-hander. His five-set quarterfinal win over defending champion Carlos Alcaraz ended at 3:33 a.m., the latest finish in U.S. Open history. But he couldn't become the first man since 1975 to beat the top two seeds on the way to the title — and a nervous start told. He double-faulted twice in his opening service game, including on set point in the first set. Zverev, meanwhile, was ruthless in the second-set tiebreaker, racing to 3-0 with a passing shot and a 16-shot rally win, then closing it out with serves at 147, 139 and 124 mph.
The crowd did its best to derail him. Zverev's habit of bouncing the ball anywhere from ten to twenty times before serving produced long stretches of silence that blunted the atmosphere, and fans who heckled during first serves were scolded by the chair umpire. "99.9% of the people wanted Ben to win, so I'm very sorry," Zverev said on the podium, while praising the crowd as fair.
The win capped a strange path to the top seed: world No. 1 Jannik Sinner withdrew with a knee injury, handing Zverev the top billing. He fell to Sinner in the Wimbledon final earlier this summer but now stands at 25-2 in majors this year. His $5.5 million cheque matches Elena Rybakina's from the women's final the day before as the largest in Grand Slam history.
For travellers, this is the story the U.S. Open has become in New York each late summer: a two-week festival in Queens where night sessions stretch past midnight, underdog runs electrify Louis Armstrong Stadium, and even a hostile crowd can't spoil the party. If tennis is on your list for next September, the electric late-night quarterfinals are worth the splurge — just pack patience and a snack for the subway ride home.