Ben Shelton Reaches First US Open Final, Setting Up Title Match With Zverev

THE MARATHON

Ben Shelton's run to the US Open final started with the latest finish in tournament history. The 8th-seeded American outlasted defending champion Carlos Alcaraz 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(7) in a quarterfinal that did not end until 3:33 a.m. and ran four hours and twenty-eight minutes, breaking the previous late-finish record set when Alcaraz beat Jannik Sinner at 2:50 a.m. in the 2022 quarterfinals, a run that carried Alcaraz to his first US Open title. It was also Shelton's first win over a top-three player.

THE SEMIFINAL

Two days later, Shelton beat fellow American Frances Tiafoe 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 to reach his first Grand Slam final. The win makes him the first Black American man to reach a US Open final since Arthur Ashe in 1972.

WHY THE ASHE COMPARISON MATTERS

Ashe's own history runs well beyond that 1972 final, which he lost to Romania's Ilie Nastase after leading two sets to one. In 1968, Ashe beat Tom Okker in five sets to win the US Open itself, becoming the first Black man from any country to win a major singles title, then added the 1970 Australian Open and 1975 Wimbledon to a career that still stands alone. More than 50 years later, Ashe remains the only Black American man ever to win a Grand Slam singles title. Shelton reaching Sunday's final does not yet match that, but it closes a specific 54-year gap in the sport: no Black American man had played for the US Open trophy since Ashe's 1972 appearance, until now. The milestone has drawn public reflection this week from other Black players in tennis, who have described the gap itself, more than half a century between finals appearances, as the more striking number than any single match score.

THE FINAL AHEAD

Shelton will play Alexander Zverev, the top seed, who reached the final by beating Karen Khachanov 6-3, 7-6(7), 7-6(6) in the other semifinal. Zverev has won all five of the pair's previous meetings, giving the German a clear edge on paper heading into Sunday's final at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the court named for the man whose 54-year-old milestone Shelton has just matched. No American man has won a Grand Slam singles title since Andy Roddick at the US Open in 2003, meaning Shelton is chasing both a personal breakthrough and the end of a 23-year national drought in the same match.