Shelton reaches first Grand Slam final, faces Zverev at US Open

Ben Shelton walked onto Arthur Ashe Stadium on a September evening with a chance to do something no American man had managed in nearly a quarter-century: win a Grand Slam. His opponent was Frances Tiafoe, another American chasing the same dream. One of them would reach the final. The other would go home.

Shelton, seeded eighth, came from a set down to beat Tiafoe 4-6 6-3 6-3 7-5 in three hours and seventeen minutes. The match was a display of aggressive tennis from both men—they combined for 74 winners, with Shelton accounting for 47 of them. He served 20 aces and won 77 percent of points when his first serve landed. Tiafoe, the 11th seed, broke Shelton's serve early and took the opening set, but Shelton responded with a forehand down the line to break to love at the start of the second. From there, the momentum shifted. Shelton broke again to lead 5-3 and held on to level the match. The third set turned on a series of long rallies—one stretched to 31 shots, another to 28—and Shelton's ability to finish those points. He broke twice more to take a two-sets-to-one lead and never relinquished it. In the fourth, Tiafoe had two break-point chances early but converted neither. At 6-5, Shelton brought up three match points. He netted the first, but Tiafoe's double fault on the next point ended it.

After losing in the semi-finals of two previous Grand Slams, Shelton had finally broken through. In his on-court interview, he spoke of Tiafoe as a big brother and paid tribute to his late grandmother and those affected by the 9/11 attacks, which fell on the 25th anniversary that week. He also looked ahead to Sunday's final with a plea to the crowd: "I'm going to need you guys on Sunday to bring the energy."

Waiting for him in that final would be Alexander Zverev, the top seed, who dispatched unseeded Russian Karen Khachanov 6-3 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (8-6) in the other semi-final. Zverev, 29, had won the French Open in June and reached the Wimbledon final in July, where he lost to Jannik Sinner. This would be his third consecutive Grand Slam final. Against Khachanov, Zverev started slowly—he had been taken to five sets in his opening two matches—but had not dropped a set since the second round. Against Khachanov, he saved two set points in the third-set tiebreak and remained composed throughout. "After the second round, at about 3am I was sitting with my team in the locker room and we were laughing at how bad I was playing," Zverev said afterward. "That sense of humour helped me."

Shelton's path to the final carried real weight. An American man had not won a Grand Slam singles title since Andy Roddick at the 2003 US Open—eleven months after Shelton was born. In the twenty-three years since, American men had reached a Grand Slam final only six times, most recently Taylor Fritz two years earlier at the same tournament. To break that drought, Shelton would have to do something he had never done: beat Zverev. He had lost all five previous meetings with the German. But Shelton had also just beaten Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals, a result that suggested he was capable of the unexpected. The final would be played in front of a partisan crowd at a venue Shelton called his favorite court in the world. Whether that would be enough remained to be seen.