As we approach the U.S. Open final, which takes place Sunday in New York City, the optimism about American men’s tennis is clocking in at a level unseen since Andy Roddick won the tournament in 2003.
Ben Shelton, the big-serving southpaw who grew up in Gainesville, Florida, and won national team and singles championships at the University of Florida in 2021 and 2022, respectively, will face the event’s top seed—and the world’s No. 2-ranked player—Alexander Zverev of Germany.
Sure, topping Zverev—the reigning French Open champion and Wimbledon runner-up—is no simple task for Shelton, who’s trying to become the first American man to claim any Grand Slam tournament title since Roddick. The German is 5-0 all-time against Shelton, who has taken a lone set against Zverev on tour.
But let’s face it: The three American men who have reached a U.S. Open final since Roddick’s seminal victory had little chance of success against far superior opponents. Andre Agassi’s nostalgic run to the 2005 final, in his second-to-last U.S. Open, ran into a Roger Federer rally: Federer, 20-time Grand Slam singles champ and recent inductee into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, bested Agassi to win the second of his five straight U.S. Open crowns.
Roddick returned to the final in 2006. Like Agassi the year before, he managed to take a set off Federer before succumbing to his rival’s inevitable triumph.
Two years ago, Taylor Fritz won his semifinal over fellow American Frances Tiafoe to reach the final against Jannik Sinner, who was on the cusp of winning his second major championship and cementing his status, along with Carlos Alcaraz, as the alpha dogs of their game. Sinner beat Fritz in straight sets in 2024—and has since won three more Grand Slam championships.
I was there the night Fritz reached that final. I wrote all about it. And truth be told, until Friday, I pretty much forgot about it.
Bet I’m not alone.
Win or lose on Sunday, Shelton’s performance at this year’s tournament will be remembered. After all, he already outlasted Alcaraz, the defending U.S. Open champion and a seven-time Slam victor, in a five-set quarterfinal epic that ended at 3:33 a.m. Wednesday—the latest finish in tournament history. Shelton won in a 10-point, fifth-set tiebreaker.
By defeating Tiafoe, a close friend whom he called “a big brother,” in Friday’s semifinal 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-5, Shelton became the first Black American man to reach a U.S. Open final since the event’s stadium namesake, Arthur Ashe, in 1972. Shelton’s the first Black American man to reach a Grand Slam singles final since MaliVai Washington, who lost to Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands at Wimbledon in 1996.
Against Tiafoe, Shelton showed the sort of mental fortitude he’ll need against Zverev. Shelton double-faulted late in the first set to give Tiafoe the first service break of the match. Tiafoe took advantage of Shelton’s error to take the set. Shelton, however, refused to let his mishap crush him. He broke Tiafoe right back to go up 2-0 in the second and eventually win that set. In the third, Shelton and Tiafoe dueled in a marathon game lasting more than 15 minutes: A Tiafoe unforced error, on Shelton’s third set point, gave Shelton the set and momentum he wouldn’t relinquish.
All match long, Shelton was able to extend rallies by chasing down Tiafoe’s best shots. At times he simply lobbed balls onto Tiafoe’s side of the net, almost daring his opponent to make a mistake. The match ended on a Tiafoe double-fault. Shelton delivered 20 aces, to Tiafoe’s three. Shelton’s energy reserves also gave him an advantage: In the fourth set, Shelton to his left and struck a full-court, diagonal winner that wowed the crowd.
On Sunday, Ashe will be Shelton’s home floor. American tennis fans have been thirsting for a winner on the men’s side, going on a quarter century.
“Let’s do this for the USA,” Shelton said on court after the match, drawing cheers from a crowd that had included Serena Williams, Shonda Rhimes, Nicole Kidman, Rami Malek, and NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson. Also in attendance was Shelton’s girlfriend, soccer star Trinity Rodman. Rodman has a 1 p.m. game in Washington on Sunday; Shelton-Zverev is slated to start at 2.
Zverev, for all his impressive play this year—he’ll be appearing in his third-straight Grand Slam final—remains a divisive figure in tennis, thanks to past allegations of domestic violence. Zverev has consistently denied the claims. One case was settled out of court in 2024, without a finding or admission of guilt. In another, an ATP investigation was unable to find sufficient evidence to support the allegations.
He’s a convenient foil for a united American audience.
After methodically picking apart Tiafoe, Shelton seems unbothered by past struggles against Zverev, pointing out that before the quarterfinal, he had also never beaten Alcaraz (in three tries). “I feel that I’m a different player,” says Shelton, who last faced Zverev last November, at the ATP Finals in Turin, Italy. “I feel like I have so many more tools. I feel like I know my identity, am comfortable in my own skin, and I know what it takes for me to be playing top-level tennis.
A reporter noted that a lot is riding on Sunday. “Is there?” Shelton responded, with a laugh.
The male American major title drought gets brought up ad nauseam. But Shelton knows he can’t dwell on the stakes.
“At the end of the day, I’m here in New York, I’m hanging out with my team, I’m with my homies playing a little bit of tennis,” he says. “Confidence and belief take over.”
He’ll need it. He has it. A chance at making history lies ahead.
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