Ben Shelton delivered the signature win of his career, outlasting defending champion Carlos Alcaraz 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(7) in a four-hour, 28-minute epic that ended at 3:33 a.m. local time, the latest finish in US Open history.
A Match For The Ages
The eighth-seeded American, buoyed by a raucous Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd chanting his name alongside "USA! USA!," fought back from a first-set tiebreak loss to take control of the match, winning nine straight games spanning the second and third sets. Alcaraz, playing his first tournament since April after a wrist injury, clawed back to force a decisive fifth set, at one point seen vomiting into a towel courtside before the match's final stretch.
Ending A Historic Streak
The win snapped Alcaraz's 18-match winning streak at Grand Slam tournaments and marked Shelton's first career victory over a top-three ranked player, having entered the match 0-17 against such opponents. It also made him the first American man ever to beat Alcaraz at a major tournament and just the second man overall to beat him in a five-set match, joining Matteo Berrettini's win at the 2022 Australian Open.
A Night To Remember
Shelton closed out the match with a 146 mph serve Alcaraz couldn't return, and afterward joked about his sister and best friend in the stands needing to be at work in just a few hours. "It's incredible," Shelton said. "I always say that this is the greatest sports city in the world... this is the greatest stadium in the world." The match capped a marathon day in which three of the four men's quarterfinals went to deciding tiebreakers, including Frances Tiafoe's comeback win over fellow American Alex Michelsen earlier in the night.
What's Next
Shelton will now face Tiafoe in an all-American semifinal, guaranteeing a US finalist for the first time since Andy Roddick's title run in 2003. For Alcaraz, the loss ends his title defense in a season already disrupted by injury, though he still won the Australian Open earlier in the year before missing both the French Open and Wimbledon.