Two majors in one year, after years of none
Alexander Zverev is the US Open champion. The German beat Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2 on Arthur Ashe Stadium, a final that ran three hours and 33 minutes.
That is his third consecutive Grand Slam final and his second title from them. He took Roland Garros in June. The 29-year-old spent most of a decade wearing the label of best player never to win a major, and he has now won two in a single season.
Shelton gave away the first set with double faults in the opening game and the closing one. The second-set breaker was over almost before it began, Zverev sprinting to 5-0. Then the American found something in the third: 14 winners against 7 unforced errors, and the end of a 66-game streak of Zverev service holds in their head-to-head.
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Twenty-five approaches, twenty-five points won at the net
Well, twenty-five out of twenty-nine. Close enough to explain the fourth set, which Zverev took control of from the very first game. Three unforced errors and a double fault from Shelton handed over the break. Another break put the German 5-2 up and he served it out from there.
Across the match he won 85 of 116 first-serve points, 73.3%, against 67.2% for Shelton. The American hit 10 aces, half his total from the Frances Tiafoe semi-final.
Their record now reads six matches, six Zverev wins, five tiebreaks, five Zverev tiebreaks.
Ninety-one majors and counting for American men
Andy Roddick won the 2003 US Open. No American man has won a Grand Slam since. That is 23 years and 91 majors, and Shelton was the one carrying it on Sunday night.
He is 23, this was his first major final, and he got here by beating Carlos Alcaraz in the quarters and Tiafoe in the semis. He moves to world No 4 on Monday, a career high. Zverev used the trophy ceremony to tell him this will happen for him: “If I had to put all my money on it, I’d put it on you lifting this trophy one day.”
Zverev, diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at four years old, thanked his mother Irina, who does not watch him play.
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