US Open: Ben Shelton came close, but Alexander Zverev keeps America waiting yet another year
· Yahoo Sports
NEW YORK — How much did the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium want American Ben Shelton to win the US Open? This much: the cheers trying to rally Shelton to victory were even louder than those for the crowd shots of Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and the rest of the world champion Knicks on the stadium video boards. That’s how you know you’ve got New York in your corner.
Unfortunately for Shelton, the Arthur Ashe crowd couldn’t help him land his second serves, target his volleys, or figure a way past Alexander Zverev. Shelton, the latest American man seeking to end a Grand Slam-less streak that will extend into its 24th year, simply could not get past Zverev, no matter how hard the crowd pushed him.
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“I’m going to need you guys on Sunday to bring the energy,” Shelton said on Friday night after defeating fellow American Francis Tiafoe. “I’m going for it here. I’m going to leave it all on the court. I hope you guys come and back me. Let’s do this for the USA.” They did indeed bring the energy, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
There was a moment where the match could have turned out differently, when Shelton finally broke Zverev in the 34th game of the match to win the third set. For the first time in the match, the smirky smile that has become Shelton’s signature actually meant something.
Hope flickered for a brief moment … and then Zverev broke right back to begin fourth set, and from there cruised to a 6-3, 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-2 victory. So locked in was Zverev that when he served out Shelton to win the match, he didn’t even realize he’d won, making for an amusing ending.
For more than a decade, the now 29-year-old Zverev was the individual player who most felt the pinch of all those majors going to the Big Three of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, and then the Big Two in Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. Despite seven semis and three finals appearances, he’d never won a Grand Slam. But he finally broke through at Roland-Garros earlier this year, and now has a second.
For Zverev, it turned out to only be a matter of time. And time is what’s looming now over the American men — the decades of time since any of them have managed to break through and win just one Grand Slam event. No Wimbledon. No Roland-Garros. No Australian. No hometown tourney. Not since Andy Roddick won here in 2003 has an American man won. And in tennis, the flag on one side of your name is almost as important as your score on the other.
Much like the World Cup, where the Americans also fall short on the global stage year after year, the tennis drought is almost inexplicable. How can America produce so many tennis players, so many champions, and not one men’s tennis champion?
Unlike the World Cup, however, American men will have four more opportunities to claim that elusive next Grand Slam next year, starting in just a few months in Australia. The natural assumption would be that if the American men just keep kicking at the door, they’ll eventually bust through … but in this case, the natural assumption might well be wrong.
If Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner regain their health and their form, and if Zverev continues to ascend, they’ll combine for an imposing barrier for anyone trying to break through. Ask any American player — Mardy Fish, John Isner, Sam Querrey, James Blake — what it was like playing in the Nadal/Federer/Djokovic era, and the story always ends the same way.
Ben Shelton had his moments, but ultimately Alexander Zverev proved to be too much.AP Photo/Adam HungerIronically, the 23-year-old Shelton provides a bit of ammunition for those who insist that America would dominate any sport, but our best athletes insist on playing football or basketball. Shelton came late to the game, initially thinking his 6’4” height and preternatural athleticism would be a better fit for football. He didn’t proceed through America’s youth tennis-industrial complex, instead learning the game from his father. He possesses the rare combination of skill, grace and charisma that separates the great from the very good.
The question now for him is whether he’ll be able to capitalize on the opportunity that lies ahead of him. This year’s US Open marked uncharted territory for Shelton. He’s never before reached the finals of a Grand Slam event, falling in the semifinals of the US Open in 2023 and the Australian Open in 2025. And Shelton has been inconsistent on the Grand Slam stages; in 2026 alone he has everything from a first-round exit at Wimbledon to this finals appearance. Will this experience help him reach the next rung on the ladder, or will he take another step back? We’ll have to wait until the Australian Open in January to start learning that answer.
Roddick, for his part, isn’t celebrating his standing as the last American man to win a Grand Slam. Anything but.
“At this point, I hate talking about it,” he said on his “Served” podcast last year. “I get asked about it all the time. I’m not the ’72 Dolphins. I don’t pop champagne when someone’s perfect season is gone. I want this so much, probably more than anyone outside the people who are going to end up winning it.”
There’s an old truism in Formula 1 racing — another international sport where the United States has failed to dominate — that catching an opponent is one thing, passing them is quite another. For so many years, American men weren’t able to even catch the dominant leaders of men’s tennis. Shelton has, at least, managed to get on their level. The challenge now is learning how to climb past them.