Shelton stuns defending champion Alcaraz in latest finish in US Open history

Ben Shelton beat Carlos Alcaraz 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7) in the US Open quarterfinals early Wednesday morning, ending the Spaniard's bid to defend his title in a match that did not finish until 3:33 a.m. — the latest conclusion to any match in the tournament's history. The No. 8-seeded American closed it out with a 146 mph ace on match point, four hours and 28 minutes after the two players had walked onto Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The win was Shelton's first in four career meetings with Alcaraz and his first over a top-three-ranked opponent. It also snapped an 18-match Grand Slam winning streak for Alcaraz, who had not lost before the semifinal round at a major tournament since the 2025 Australian Open, according to the ATP Tour's recap of the match.

The numbers

The match ran longer than any US Open quarterfinal finish on record, surpassing the previous mark of 2:50 a.m., set in 2022 when Alcaraz beat Jannik Sinner in a five-setter of his own. Alcaraz outhit Shelton on paper, finishing with 38 winners to Shelton's 34, but his 53 unforced errors, compared with 34 for the American, proved decisive. Shelton took the second and third sets 6-1 and 6-3 after dropping a tight opening-set tiebreak, only for Alcaraz to level things with a 6-1 fourth set. The decisive fifth set went the distance before Shelton won the deciding tiebreak 10-7.

The result also ended Alcaraz's run of 15 wins in his previous 16 five-set matches, and closed out a head-to-head series in which the Spaniard had led Shelton 3-0 before Wednesday. Alcaraz currently sits third and Shelton ninth in the ATP Tour's official singles rankings.

A truncated comeback

The loss came in what was effectively Alcaraz's return tournament after a four-month absence. The two-time defending US Open champion had not competed since April, when a right wrist injury — later diagnosed as tenosynovitis, an inflammatory overuse condition rather than a structural tear — forced him out of the French Open and Wimbledon. He arrived in New York having played only sparingly since the spring, and reaching the quarterfinals in his first tournament back was itself regarded as a strong result before Wednesday's defeat.

Shelton, for his part, arrived off one of the better stretches of his career: a 12-2 record on hard courts since Wimbledon that included his second ATP Masters 1000 title, won in Montreal. He advanced to the quarterfinal with a straight-sets win over Stefanos Tsitsipas, his first career victory over the former world No. 3, before immediately returning to the practice courts to prepare for Alcaraz.

Who it affects

The result reshapes the bottom half of the men's draw and guarantees an American man a place in Friday's US Open final for the first time since Andy Roddick's title run in 2003 — the last time an American man won a Grand Slam singles title of any kind. Shelton will face fellow American Frances Tiafoe, the No. 11 seed, who reached his second consecutive US Open semifinal by beating Alex Michelsen 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (10-6) in the other quarterfinal, NBC News reported alongside its account of the record-late finish. Shelton leads that head-to-head series, though both men are still seeking a first Grand Slam final.

For Alcaraz, the defeat ends his tournament in the quarterfinals for the first time since the 2025 Australian Open and raises questions about his conditioning and match sharpness heading into the rest of the season, given the length of his layoff. His ranking, which had already slipped to No. 3 during the injury absence, is unlikely to fall further from this result alone, since the points he was defending in New York were tied to last year's title and a first-week exit would have cost him considerably more.

The quarterfinal loss also closes the book on what had been one of the more unusual title defenses in recent US Open history: a two-time defending champion returning from a four-month layoff, skipping two of the year's four majors, and still reaching the final eight in his first tournament back. The match's late finish drew renewed attention to how far US Open scheduling has drifted from a normal night session; Arthur Ashe Stadium, the tournament's roughly 23,800-seat main court, was still close to full when Shelton served out the match nearly four and a half hours after the players walked on court.

Reaction

Shelton, who was playing in front of a raucous, chanting crowd that stayed well past 3 a.m., credited the Ashe Stadium atmosphere for carrying him through the fifth set. "For me it's always about the people in the crowd," he said afterward, according to an account of the postmatch remarks that also detailed Alcaraz's injury layoff. "The city of New York that showed up tonight until 3 a.m. with the USA chants, that's what kept me going."

Alcaraz, who described the match as "close, it really was close," said fatigue set in after the third set before he found another gear in the decider. Asked to assess his opponent, he did not hedge.

"He knew exactly what to do at every moment. Physically, he's a beast."

He added, in remarks carried alongside confirmation of Tiafoe's own five-set win over Alex Michelsen, that he was leaving Flushing Meadows "happy" and "healthy" despite the early exit, a notable point given the injury that kept him out for most of the spring and summer.

What happens next

Shelton and Tiafoe meet in Friday's semifinal, a rematch of a rivalry Shelton currently leads, with the winner advancing to Sunday's final already assured of the chance to end the 23-year drought since an American man last won a major. For Alcaraz, attention now turns to whether his layoff-shortened run in New York was enough of a platform to carry into the fall hard-court swing, with tournaments in Asia and the ATP Finals still to come before the season's end.