Zverev beats Shelton in four sets for his first US Open title

Alexander Zverev beat Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6 (7-2), 5-7, 6-2 in the US Open men's final on Sunday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The match lasted 3 hours and 33 minutes. It was Zverev's first title in New York and his second Grand Slam of 2026, after the French Open in June. Prize money for each singles champion this year was $5.5 million.

Zverev was the top seed at a major for the first time. Shelton, seeded eighth, was in his first major final. The American crowd spent the evening trying to will a first US male champion since Andy Roddick in 2003, and a first Black male champion at this event since Arthur Ashe in 1968. Zverev broke the start, won a clean tie-break on serve, dropped the third set 7-5, then served the fourth set out at 6-2.

On championship point Shelton failed to return serve. Zverev walked back to the baseline as if another point were coming. His box had to tell him the match was over. Then he shouted toward them. The BBC wrote that he had been in a trance-like state. The same player had cried through the trophy speech in 2020, after losing the final to Dominic Thiem, and had said he wished one day to take the cup home.

A year that closed a 30-year gap

We went 30 years without winning a Grand Slam title and now we've won two in three months, Zverev said. The last German man to win the US Open in the Open era was Boris Becker. Zverev's 2026 major record sits at 25-2, with a semi-final in Melbourne and a final at Wimbledon around the two titles.

He used the speech to talk about his mother. Doctors had told the family that his life and sport would be very limited. It takes a very strong mother to say my son will be whatever he wants to be, he said. My mother is the most important and strongest person I know.

Shelton's run still changed the fortnight. An American in the Sunday final at home is a rare draw in this decade. He hit through the first week and the second with a left-handed serve that the New York crowd treats as home property. He could not hold the early deficit against Zverev's first-strike tennis and could not turn the third-set break into a fifth set. The drought for US men at the slams now runs at least another year.

What the ranking sheet will show

Zverev arrived as world No. 2 on some lists and as the tournament's No. 1 seed. A second major in 90 days will keep him in the argument for year-end No. 1. Elena Rybakina had already taken the women's title on Saturday for the same $5.5 million cheque, the largest singles prize a slam has paid.

The tennis point is simple enough to state without decoration. A player who had lost the 2020 final here, and who had been described for years as a nearly man at majors, has now won on clay in Paris and on the New York hard court in the same season. He did it as the first seed, which is a different pressure from the 2020 final he lost as a younger favourite.

Shelton will be back in these second weeks. The serve and the forehand that got him to Sunday are not a one-fortnight trick. Zverev no longer has to talk about the one that got away on this court. He has the cup he asked for six years ago, and he has a clay-court major to sit next to it.