WHAT HAPPENED
Alexander Zverev captured his second Grand Slam title—and second major of the year—by defeating American Ben Shelton in the 2026 US Open men’s singles final, 6-3, 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-2, on Sunday.
“We went 30 years without winning a Grand Slam and now we won two in the span of three months,” the 29-year-old said to his team during the post-match ceremony. “I think God has seen how hard we worked, how much we suffered, how much pain we went through, and I think 2026 is the outcome of all the years that happened before.”
Shelton was vying to become the first American man to win a major since Andy Roddick achieved the feat in Flushing Meadows 23 years ago. But he could not overcome the No. 1 seed, who lifted his maiden Slam trophy at Roland Garros this spring and whose big-match experience ultimately carried him over the line in this contest.
Their previous battles decisively favored Zverev coming into the final. The German possessed a 5-0 advantage against the American, and in all those prior encounters, Shelton had only managed to claim one set, in their first-ever meeting in 2024. Zverev was also 44-1 against left-handers since the French Open in 2023, as he generally favors the forehand-to-backhand exchanges the matchup produces.
Additionally, an experience gap separated the pair: Zverev was contesting his sixth Grand Slam final and third this year, while Shelton had never before reached that stage in his career.
On the very second point of the championship match, Zverev displayed exactly why his rally-extending capabilities make this such a punishing matchup for Shelton. During that point, the American took advantage of the rally with his forehand and immediately put Zverev on the back foot. Even still, Zverev remained unbothered, using his defensive skills to stay in the rally. Shelton then tried to drag the German off the court with an angled forehand; Zverev returned the ball with his precise backhand. Shelton brought him forward with a drop shot, but Zverev, with his exemplary movement, got right up to it, then closed down at the net, eventually drawing an error from Shelton.
Zverev would go on to break Shelton in that game on his first opportunity, which was all he needed to claim the first set, breaking Shelton again at 5-3 as the American hit his second double fault of the match on set point. Shelton could simply not gain a foothold in his opponent’s service games: Despite winning six of seven points on Zverev’s second serve, he did not record one on Zverev’s first until eight games into the match. (To be fair, Zverev was reaching some Sheltonesque speeds on that shot, hitting one at 141 mph.)
Much like his battles against Frances Tiafoe in the semis and Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals—where he also dropped the first set—Shelton started to sink his teeth into the match in the second, saving a break point for the first time and winning a rally over nine shots for the first time. (He’d ultimately take four of 12 extended exchanges in set two.) He mostly held with ease, but still could not do much on the return. And he continued to rack up errors, which always seemed to appear at inopportune times: First as Zverev played a nervy service game at 3-3, and then again as the American served to take it to a tiebreak, falling into a Love-30 hole.
Shelton was able to erase that deficit and force a breaker, thanks in part to an exchange that ended with a drop volley winner and that brought the Ashe crowd to its feet. But Zverev fully quieted the noise as the tiebreak got underway. He won the first five points, and it was over faster than Zverev’s own serve, which he cracked up to 147 mph en route to claiming the second. Shelton and Zverev had contested four tiebreak sets over the course of their encounters; the American had never won one, and he wouldn’t win this one either.
Photo by Simon Bruty/USTA
In the third, Shelton finally did something he hadn’t been able to do for the first two hours of the match: Earn a break point. It was promptly erased with a backhand winner.
Still, as the match careened toward a possible straight-set conclusion, Shelton did start to make Zverev work harder to hold, and he found himself coming out on top in more cat-and-mouse rallies; he claimed two with lobs that sent spectators into hysterics. But this was ultimately the game that Zverev wanted to play, and every breathtaking Shelton shot was seemingly matched by an equally deflating error on the next point.
Or was it the game Zverev wanted to play? As the world No. 2 served to take it to a third-set tiebreak—where, given his previous success, he would have had a distinct advantage—Shelton began to unload on his shots. The German felt the pressure and committed two uncharacteristic errors to give the American three break-point opportunities. Shelton needed just two to take it to a fourth, and the crowd erupted. Amazingly, it ended a streak of 66 consecutive service holds for Zverev in the matchup.
But the fourth set exhibited how much Zverev has grown as a big-match player. He dug in and refused to surrender the first game, breaking Shelton immediately and clawing the momentum back as he sucked all the energy out of the stadium. Just like the first, it was all he needed—but he broke Shelton once more for good measure. He lost just four points on his serve the entire set and won the championship with an unreturned serve. So dialed in, Zverev didn’t even know he’d won.
WHAT IT MEANS
It was a workmanlike performance from Zverev, who, even as he dropped the third, managed his nerve, his serve and a pro-Shelton crowd to emerge victorious.
The German has spent the majority of his career weighted down by the title of “best never to win a major.”
For years, he stood in the shadow of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. He was two points away from getting over the hump at the 2020 US Open. Instead, he watched his contemporary Daniil Medvedev lift the championship trophy in Flushing Meadows a year later.
Then, as Federer and Nadal hung up their tennis shoes, Carlos Alcaraz ignited. Jannik Sinner soon followed. Zverev contested two more finals against them; he lost both. Finally, in June, on the clay at Roland Garros, he didn’t need to face either one and took advantage to lift his first Grand Slam trophy. Just three months later, he’s now lifted his second. No longer weighed down, who knows how many more he can add to his trophy cabinet.
In his victory speech, Zverev paid special tribute to his mother and intimated that not winning a Grand Slam was hardly the hardest obstacle he faced.
“When your 4-year-old son gets diagnosed with diabetes and doctors in the office tell you that life and sports will be very limited for that child, it takes a very, very strong mother to walk out of those offices and say ‘My son will be whatever he wants to be,’” Zverev said. “If he wants to be a tennis player, he’ll be a tennis player. If he wants to do something else, he’ll do something else. But this illness will not define us. And I’m happy that we worked through it, and that we’re doing things that we’re doing right now.”
MATCH POINT
Zverev was just too strong on his first serve today, winning 85% of points (68/80) behind that weapon. He won 11 of 12 in the third.
