Ben Shelton beat Carlos Alcaraz 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7) in the US Open quarterfinals in a match that finished at 3:33 a.m. ET on Wednesday, the latest any match has ever ended at the tournament. Play began just after 11 p.m. and ran 4 hours and 28 minutes.
Alcaraz was the No. 2 seed and the defending champion, and the US Open was his first tournament since April. He had been out roughly four months with a wrist injury. Per ESPN, he arrived on an 18-match Grand Slam winning streak, had not lost before the semifinals of a major since the 2025 Australian Open, and had won 12 consecutive five-set matches, a run tied with Bjorn Borg for the longest in the Open era. Shelton ended all three.
Shelton's first win over a top-three player
Shelton had played top-three opponents 17 times in his career and lost every one of them. This was his first win in that column. Shelton closed the match tiebreak with a 146 mph ace.
"I'm tired. It was a war," Shelton said afterward, per ESPN. "Carlos is one of the greatest champions of our sport. It was the most enjoyable match I've had in my career, for sure." He also credited the crowd that stayed until the end: "It's always about the people in the crowd, whether it's my coaches, team or friends and family, or the city of New York that showed up tonight until 3am with the USA chants."
Alcaraz said he was disappointed not to close the match out but proud of how he fought.
An all-American semifinal
Shelton now plays Frances Tiafoe on Friday. Tiafoe reached the semifinals hours earlier by recovering from two sets down against Alex Michelsen, another five-set American win, which guarantees an American in Sunday's final.
No American man has won a Grand Slam singles title since Andy Roddick at the 2003 US Open, a 23-year gap. Both remaining Americans in the men's draw are now two wins from ending it.
The men's draw has produced repeated long matches this fortnight. Novak Djokovic lost in five sets to Mariano Navone in the first round. On the women's side, Zheng Qinwen beat Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals.
Source: ESPN
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