Zverev is well suited for left-handed opponents due to the strength of his two-handed backhand, which allows him to counter the effects of their swinging serve out wide from the left advantage side as well as their crosscourt forehand from the same position.<\/p>\n
There are plenty of reasons, however, for Shelton to be hopeful that things will be different in New York. He will remind himself of the fact that they have never faced each other in a grand slam tournament, where the American so often elevates his game, and particularly that the theme of this tournament has been breaking new ground in difficult match-ups.<\/p>\n
\u201cProblem-solving has been the name of the game here,\u201d he said. \u201cI was 0-1 against Stef [Stefanos Tsitsipas], 0-3 against Carlos [Alcaraz], Foe [Frances Tiafoe] beat me the last time we played on this court. It\u2019s been a lot of uphill battle, so I think I\u2019m fully ready for the challenge to problem-solve.\u201d<\/p>\n
His father and coach, Bryan, stressed how well his son, who is 7-2 in finals, competes with a title on the line: \u201cHe\u2019s got an amazing record on Sundays. Don\u2019t want to jinx him here, but if you look at his record throughout his career, he\u2019s played well on Sundays.<\/p>\n
Ben Shelton has failed to beat Alexander Zverev in their previous five meetings. Photograph: Crist\u00f3bal Herrera\/EPA<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that\u2019s where he wants to be. He feels like he\u2019s going to play his best tennis at the end of the week, or end of the two weeks. So glad he has a chance at the US Open.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the most striking aspects of Shelton\u2019s emergence has been his relentless improvement. His path took him through the college route where he started as an unremarkable prospect. When he first emerged on the ATP Tour, the strengths he showed with his enormous serve, athleticism and the variation he could play with were counterbalanced by glaring weaknesses in his backhand, return and consistency from the baseline. They were all still present on his explosive first full season on the tour in 2023, which he began with a run to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on his first trip outside the United States. He reached the semi-finals of the US Open that year, yet despite progressing only one round further this year, Shelton is a different player now.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Fortnightly<\/p>\n Sign up to The Hotspot<\/p>\n A new fortnightly newsletter covering the intersection of sport and the climate crisis<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n He has made such drastic improvements to his backhand, return of serve and consistency, which is what has allowed him to perform at such a high level during this tournament. Against Alcaraz<\/a>, he returned well and was the far more stable player from the baseline. In his win over Tiafoe<\/a>, he saved one of the best backhand days of his career for one of the biggest matches.<\/p>\n \u201cI still feel so many categories that I think I have a long way to go, but I\u2019ve made improvements and changes in some of the most important categories to be able to compete at the top,\u201d he said. \u201cReturn of serve, stability from the baseline, even my serve, the way that I go about putting together my service games has improved, and my ability to focus for long periods of time are all areas that have come together and have helped me play at the level I\u2019m playing. But the pursuit and hunger to get better, to find ways that I can improve, it\u2019s just a part of who I am and something that will never change.\u201d<\/p>\n Late on Friday night, as Shelton left the court and only just began to digest his achievement, a smile spread widely across his father\u2019s face. \u201cTo do it here at the US Open and be playing on the final day, this kid, it\u2019s kind of surreal,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t think he was going to even get into this sport and then to be where he\u2019s at right now, I mean, it\u2019s just hard to believe, hard to believe and just super, super grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Ben Shelton lapped up the explosion of joy and adoration from a full Arthur Ashe Stadium after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":889788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-889787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789249814_152_1028.jpg\")
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