Zverev wins the US Open, his second major of the year, beating Shelton in four sets

Alexander Zverev won the US Open on Sunday, beating Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2 in three hours and 33 minutes on Arthur Ashe Stadium. It is his second Grand Slam title, three months after his first at Roland-Garros, and it makes him the fourth man of the Open Era to win his first two majors in the same season, after Jimmy Connors in 1974, Guillermo Vilas in 1977 and Jannik Sinner in 2024. He is the first German man to win the tournament since Boris Becker in 1989, and the title came six years to the day after he lost the 2020 final on the same court to Dominic Thiem from two sets up.

Shelton, 23 and in his first major final, was trying to become the first American man to win a Grand Slam title since Andy Roddick here in 2003. Roddick was in the stadium. The wait now runs into a 24th year.

The match

Shelton double-faulted on a break point in his opening service game and did it again on set point at 5-3; those were Zverev's two chances in the first set and he took both. In the second set neither man faced a break point. Zverev led the tiebreak 5-0 and won it 7-2, and in it he hit a serve that the radar clocked at 147 mph, the fastest of the match.

Shelton's first break point of the afternoon came at 2-3 in the third set, and Zverev saved it behind a 133 mph serve. At 3-4 a 19-shot rally ended with a Zverev backhand winner and Shelton on the ground. Shelton was holding easily by then, and with Zverev serving at 5-6 the German played a loose game: Shelton reached triple break point and converted the second when Zverev missed a forehand volley, according to sport.de's ticker. It was the first time Shelton had broken Zverev in 66 service games between them, by the count in Yahoo Sports' live blog.

Zverev broke back in the first game of the fourth set. At 2-1 he was given a time violation for the length of his service routine; the crowd cheered the call and he argued to the umpire, Marijana Veljović, that he had been waiting for the noise to stop. He broke again for 5-2 when a Shelton lob drifted long and served out the match, which ended with a serve that Shelton hit out. Zverev did not at first realise it was over and stood waiting for the next point before raising his arms. The crowd had been with Shelton throughout, applauding Zverev's errors, the ticker notes. Before the final Zverev had said he did not mind: "I've been playing for more than ten years in stadiums that are sometimes against me," he told reporters in a remark carried by Sportschau, here translated from the German. "I'm used to it, and I like that kind of atmosphere too."

Shelton served more aces, 10 to 9, and Zverev made more double faults, six to four, but the serving numbers that decided the match were behind the first delivery: Zverev won 84 per cent of his first-serve points to Shelton's 70, held 19 of his 20 service games, and won 20 of 24 points at the net. Shelton had three break points all match and converted one.

4 of 6Zverev

1 of 3Shelton

Source: Tennis.com match statistics.

"We went 30 years without winning a Grand Slam title and now we've won two within the span of three months," Zverev said at the ceremony, in the ATP's report. "I think God has seen how hard we worked, how much we suffered, how much pain we went through. I think 2026 is the outcome of all the years that happened before." To Shelton: "This was your first Grand Slam final, but I already told you that you're going to be back here many, many more times." Shelton, in his runner-up speech, as Tennishead transcribes it: "Your second Grand Slam, your second in a year. You are one of the best players in the world, maybe the best player in the world this year. You work harder than anyone I know, you put more hours in on the court than anyone I know."

A season of finals

Zverev's record at the majors this year is 25-2: a semifinal in Melbourne, lost to Carlos Alcaraz, the title in Paris against Flavio Cobolli, the Wimbledon final lost to Sinner, and now New York, his third major final in a row and the sixth of his career. His only two titles of 2026 are the two majors. He leads the tour with 53 wins.

He needed 19 hours and 38 minutes on court to get to this final, the fourth-longest route to a men's major final since records began in 1991, after two five-set matches in the first two rounds. From the third round to the semifinal he did not drop a set. In the semifinal he beat Karen Khachanov 6-3, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (6), coming from 3-5 down in the second-set tiebreak and 4-6 down in the third.

The rankings do not move at the top. Zverev remains No. 2, 1,810 points behind Sinner, who missed the tournament with a knee injury. In the Race to Turin, which counts only this season, he now leads Sinner by 700 points; before the semifinal the ATP had him 500 behind. The ATP Finals are played in Turin from 15 to 22 November.

Shelton

Shelton was the first African-American man in a Grand Slam final since MaliVai Washington at Wimbledon in 1996, and the first in a US Open final since Arthur Ashe in 1972. He got there by beating Alcaraz, the defending champion, at 3:33 a.m. in the quarterfinals and then Frances Tiafoe 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 in the semifinals, and he was 7-2 in tour-level finals before Sunday. Zverev has now won all six of their meetings. Shelton rises to No. 4 on Monday, a career high.

Prize money and what comes next

Zverev earns $5.5 million and Shelton $2.8 million, from a total package of $108 million. The women's title went on Saturday to Elena Rybakina, who beat Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 5-7, 6-2.

Zverev's next match is for Germany: the Davis Cup qualifier against Croatia in Halle on 19 and 20 September, for which the German federation has named him alongside Yannick Hanfmann and the doubles pair Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz. The Laver Cup follows in London from 25 to 27 September, where he is confirmed for Team Europe.