Sixty-seven games. That’s how long Alexander Zverev continued to hold his service against Ben Shelton before the American finally broke again. Shelton had only done it once before: in the first set of their first meeting in 2024.

Zverev had amassed five straight wins over him since and was about to earn a sixth one. Yet, the German’s mind was not at ease.

He had been here before. He had let the US Open title slip from his grasp. Six years back, close friend Dominic Thiem had erased a two-set deficit to leave Zverev agonisingly short. The previous time such a comeback had materialised in New York was in 1949.

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On Sunday, Shelton was similarly two sets down against Zverev. Like Thiem, the 23-year-old took the third set. A 24,000-strong crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium was willing the home hope on to do the improbable. Zverev could not bear another heartbreak.

And so he was locked in a trance-like state. Serve, receive, repeat. Scores were forgotten. When victory finally arrived at 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2, Zverev did not recognise it. He went back to the receive position, oblivious to chair umpire Marijana Veljović’s ‘game-set-match’ proclamation. His team told him the match was over. Zverev exhaled.

He had conquered Flushing Meadows, eleven years after first appearing in the main draw.


“In that moment I was in the zone a lot. I didn’t hear noise at all,” Zverev later described his state of mind. “It’s funny – tennis teachers always tell you to just play the next point and forget about the score. At that moment I forgot about the score and it helped me.”

Turning a corner

After several seasons of nerves and near-misses, Zverev has turned the corner in 2026 with two Major titles. Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic were all afflicted by physical troubles for lengthy stretches, leaving ‘Sascha’ room to break through.

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“We went 30 years without winning a Grand Slam title and now we’ve won two in three months,” said Zverev to his team, which includes father Alexander senior and brother Mischa, in his winner’s speech. “2026 is the outcome of all the years that happened before.”

Alexander Zverev celebrates after he won the men’s singles final of the US Open tennis championships against Ben Shelton.

Those years included grave allegations of domestic abuse by two former partners, Olya Sharypova and Brenda Patea. Zverev denied the allegations and had an out-of-court settlement with Patea in 2024. But his public reputation remains tainted. He was heckled by a spectator during the Australian Open trophy ceremony last year.

The audience in New York anyway had enough reason to turn against Zverev. Shelton, their hero, had captured the imagination with an inspired campaign. He was stuttering in the final and needed a push. The crowd readily supplied it.

“I know that today 99.9% of the people wanted Ben to win, so I’m very sorry first of all,” Zverev told them. “But second, it was an incredible atmosphere to play in. Even though I know that the crowd was against me, the crowd was always incredibly fair.”

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Shelton perhaps experienced the jittery feeling that Zverev did back in 2020. The first-time Slam finalist was uncharacteristically loose with his serving, especially in the first set. He committed a double fault to be broken in the opening game and double faulted again at set point.

The second set was tighter as Shelton improved his serve rhythm and forced a tiebreak. But Zverev was sharper with his groundstrokes in the key moments, racing to a 5-0 lead that decided the breaker.

Shelton was hurting. He showed determination in the third set, repeatedly gunning for Zverev’s serve. He pried it open at the last opportunity at 6-5.

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The break had arrived after 67 consecutive service holds across six matches by Zverev, who Shelton said post-match “has got the best serve in tennis”. It kept the left-hander afloat but not for long.

Zverev disrupted Shelton’s plans of snatching momentum by breaking right back in Game 1 of the fourth set. The American realised it was now or never and went for broke. It could have worked some other day, but just didn’t on Sunday.

He was broken again in the seventh game and after three hours and 33 minutes, a long forehand brought Shelton’s resistance to a tame end.

“I’m excited with the progress that I feel that I’ve made, but this one stings 100%,” said Shelton. “I made too many errors when I had the ball there on my strings.”

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He would have learnt a lot from this career-defining run and there is work to be done on his game. But Shelton has time, talent and tenacity on his side. As Zverev put it, “You’re (Shelton) going to be back here many, many times. If I have to bet all my money on it, I would bet that you would lift this trophy one day.”