Ben Shelton Ends Alcaraz's U.S. Open Defense in Record 3:33 a.m. Finish
The American won a fifth-set tiebreaker to snap Alcaraz's 18-match Grand Slam winning streak and set up an all-American semifinal against Frances Tiafoe.
Ben Shelton knocked defending champion Carlos Alcaraz out of the U.S. Open early Wednesday, winning a five-set quarterfinal that ended at 3:33 a.m., the latest finish in the tournament's history.
Shelton won 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (7) in 4 hours, 28 minutes on Arthur Ashe Stadium, sealing it with a 146 mph ace. The win sends him into Friday's semifinals against fellow American Frances Tiafoe, which guarantees a U.S. man will play for the title on Sunday. No American man has won the tournament since Andy Roddick in 2003.
A match that swung both ways
Alcaraz, the No. 2 seed, edged a first-set tiebreaker. Shelton answered with a surge that carried him through the next two sets, winning nine straight games at one stage as his serve and forehand took over.
The Spaniard responded the way champions often do, dropping just one game in the fourth set to force a decider. The fifth set reached 6-6 and a first-to-10 tiebreaker, and Shelton held on to finish off the biggest win of his career.
"That was a war, epic match, so physical," Shelton said afterward.
The finish broke a record Alcaraz already owned. His 2022 quarterfinal against Jannik Sinner ended at 2:50 a.m., and he went on to win his first major title that year.
Streaks snapped
The loss ended Alcaraz's 18-match winning streak at Grand Slam events. It was also his first defeat at a major against an American, and his first at a Slam against a left-handed opponent.
For Shelton, it was his first career win over a player ranked in the top three, a barrier that had kept him just short of the game's elite.
From Gainesville to Ashe
Shelton, 23, won the NCAA singles title at the University of Florida in 2022 before turning pro, and his rise since has been quick. He reached the U.S. Open semifinals as a 20-year-old in 2023 and made the Australian Open semifinals in 2025.
Friday will be his second U.S. Open semifinal, and a chance to reach his first Grand Slam final in front of a home crowd that stayed with him deep into the night.
An all-American semifinal
Tiafoe reached the final four hours earlier with a comeback of his own. The 28-year-old from Maryland trailed Alex Michelsen by two sets and fell behind 3-0 in the fifth before winning 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (6), taking the deciding tiebreaker 10-6.
It is Tiafoe's third U.S. Open semifinal. He lost five-set semifinals to Alcaraz in 2022 and to Taylor Fritz in 2024. Both he and Shelton are Black Americans, and whoever wins Friday will be the first Black American man to reach the U.S. Open final since Arthur Ashe in 1972.
What happens next
The other semifinal will come from Wednesday's quarterfinals in the top half of the draw, where top seed Alexander Zverev plays Botic van de Zandschulp and Karen Khachanov faces Alexander Blockx.
Shelton's first job is recovery. After walking off court well past 3 a.m., he has roughly two days to prepare for another best-of-five-set match, against an opponent who also needed five sets and a tiebreaker to get there. The men's final is scheduled for Sunday.
Image: Hameltion via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
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