When Steve Brown checked the time after the last sale of the night was made at the U.S. Open’s flagship souvenir shop, it was 4:11 on Wednesday morning. Mr. Brown, the store’s manager, locked the doors six minutes after that. When he went outside to go home, he was stunned to see so many people still on the grounds of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the site of one of the craziest nights in tennis.
“There’s people sitting out there drinking their Honey Deuces or what have you, and I’m like, Don’t you people want to go home?” Mr. Brown said during his next shift, which began less than four hours after his previous one ended.
The fans he saw had just witnessed a historic night in U.S. Open history. It was the fourth straight match in over 16 hours of tennis in Arthur Ashe Stadium. The first one started on Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. and the last of the quadruple marathons ended when the American Ben Shelton beat the defending U.S. Open champion, Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, in a fifth-set tiebreaker.
Their post-match hug was at 3:33 a.m., the latest a U.S. Open match has ever gone. But there was still work to do.
The players had post-match interviews to attend. Ushers had people to shoo out of the stadium. Cleaning crews swept up. Photographers filed their shots of the astounding match, reporters wrote stories and concession workers like Mr. Brown closed up shop. The last two members of the U.S. Open communications department remaining on site, Brendan McIntyre and Patrick Mitsch, exited the grounds at 5:05 a.m.
And despite the late ending, thousands of fans stayed until the exhausting but thrilling conclusion.
“It was at least 40 percent full in the lower bowl of the stadium,” said the veteran sports photographer Geoff Burke of Imagn Images. He recorded the final moments of the match, bundled up his equipment and grabbed one of the last media shuttles. He entered his Midtown Manhattan hotel room by 4:20 a.m. — and was back later the same morning to photograph the day’s first scheduled match in Ashe Stadium.
“Late matches are part of the lore of the U.S. Open,” said Mr. Burke, who has photographed 15 U.S. Opens. “It’s a big deal, and it’s really a privilege to be able to say you were there for the latest finish in history.”
Tennis matches can last several hours — Shelton and Alcaraz played for 4 hours 28 minutes.
The exceptionally late ending, though, was a result of four consecutive long matches at the stadium, so they did not start their match until about 11 p.m.
It is also not uncommon for U.S. Open matches to stretch past midnight. In 2022, Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner played until 2:50 a.m. Some complain that no sporting event should extend so late, and that the U.S. Open could address the issue by moving matches to Louis Armstrong Stadium when there is a backlog. That might not sit well with fans in high-priced luxury boxes in Ashe, who expect to see the top matches of the day.
The burden is more on the workers who must stay to the bleary-eyed ending. But Mr. Brown, a teacher in his regular job, was delighted to accrue the overtime. He worked 74 hours last week and has already clocked 83 this week, he said.
According to David Konecky, the United States Tennis Association’s head of talent acquisition, the workers are entitled to overtime. Because the work is condensed into a tight, three-week window, many are eager to make as much as possible during that time.
On Wednesday, Mr. Konecky said, accommodations were made to allow some workers more time to recover from the night before. “We try to rotate people and have them come in later and be as flexible as possible,” he said. “They work very hard.”
Dean Whylie is a maintenance worker who removes trash from the upper reaches of Ashe Stadium. He, too, was surprised to see how many people had stayed until the end of the last match, and he marveled at the crowds exiting the grounds just a couple of hours before dawn.
“When I got down here after 4, it was off the chain,” he said on Wednesday, after he returned to the grounds for the next shift. “It was totally packed like it was the middle of the day. And the 7 train was so crowded, I thought it was going to tip over.”
Mr. Whylie said that he takes two trains to get to his home at the other end of Queens and that he finally made it there by 5 o’clock. He snoozed for a bit and then came right back in, with no complaints.
“I’ve never seen the U.S. Open like that,” he said, before noting that he was named employee of the year in 2025. “It’s a lot of work but, you know, part of history. Plus, making bank.”
As for Mr. Brown, he made it to his home in Elmont, N.Y., for only about two hours. He walked the dog, watched a show, showered, changed and returned for work at the souvenir shop by 8 a.m.
“I’m on straight-up espresso,” he said.
The post A U.S. Open Match Ended at 3:30 a.m. It Wasn’t Over for the Workers. appeared first on New York Times.
