Alexander Zverev Beats Ben Shelton in Four Sets to Win 2026 U.S. Open

Alexander Zverev beat Ben Shelton in four sets Sunday to win the 2026 U.S. Open men’s singles title, earning his second Grand Slam championship and extending the long wait for an American man to win a major.

The top-seeded Zverev defeated the No. 8 seed 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2 at Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York. The victory came on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Shelton’s first appearance in a Grand Slam final.

For Zverev, the title added another milestone to a breakthrough season. The 29-year-old had entered the tournament as one of the leading favorites after winning the French Open in June, his first major singles title. By following that with a championship in New York, Zverev became a two-time Grand Slam winner in the same season after years of regularly reaching the latter stages of majors without finishing the job.

Shelton’s run to the final was the deepest major showing of his career and briefly raised the possibility of ending a 23-year drought for American men in Grand Slam singles. The last American man to win a major remains Andy Roddick, who won the 2003 U.S. Open. Shelton, an American left-hander playing in his first Grand Slam final, reached Sunday’s match by beating fellow American Frances Tiafoe in the semifinals. Earlier in the tournament, he ousted defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in a five-set quarterfinal that ended at 3:33 a.m., the latest finish in U.S. Open history.

Zverev entered the final with a clear edge in the matchup. He had won all five of his previous meetings with Shelton, dropping only one set across those matches. The title in New York also added to a year that has changed the tenor of Zverev’s career: He had spent years knocking on the door at majors, including a run to the 2020 U.S. Open final, before finally breaking through at Roland-Garros earlier this year.

Shelton’s run still carried broader significance. He became the first Black American man to reach the U.S. Open singles final since Arthur Ashe in 1972 and the first Black American to make any Grand Slam singles final since MaliVai Washington at Wimbledon in 1996.