{"id":889136,"date":"2026-09-09T11:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T11:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/889136\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T11:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T11:10:16","slug":"alcaraz-falls-to-shelton-in-late-night-thriller-sabalenka-survives-at-u-s-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/889136\/","title":{"rendered":"Alcaraz falls to Shelton in late-night thriller, Sabalenka survives at U.S. Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Ben Shelton of the United States embraces Carlos Alcaraz of Spain at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, New York, Tuesday.Julian Finney\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ben Shelton sent defending champion Carlos Alcaraz packing from the U.S. Open quarter-finals in the early hours of Wednesday, the pair slugging it out in the latest-finishing match in tournament history, while Aryna Sabalenka was pushed to the limit but kept her title defence alive.<\/p>\n

Spaniard Alcaraz had defied concerns over his long layoff due to a wrist injury but came undone against American eighth seed Shelton, who plays countryman Frances Tiafoe for a place in the final.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz, 23, struggled with accuracy, making an uncharacteristic 53 unforced errors, and was dragged into a punishing four-hour and 28-minute battle, where Shelton sealed a 6-7(5) 6-1 6-3 1-6 7-6(10-7) victory at 3:33 a.m. on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarlos is one of the greatest champions in our sport already,\u201d Shelton said of the seven-times Grand Slam champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always fun being on the court against him. It\u2019s ridiculous some of the stuff he comes up with sometimes, but it\u2019s the most enjoyable match I\u2019ve had in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Shelton and Tiafoe continue their quest to become the first American men\u2019s Grand Slam champion since Andy Roddick\u2019s 2003 triumph at Flushing Meadows, Alcaraz departed with a smile on his face.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone could see it on court,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe left the court smiling, happy. At the end of the day, when matches are that close, that tight, and you end up losing after 4-1\/2 hours, well, it\u2019s never pleasant.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you have to look at the bigger picture, we played some absolutely brilliant tennis. The crowd really enjoyed it. There were loads of people in the stadium supporting us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka returns a shot against Linda Noskova of Czechia, Tuesday.Al Bello\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Sabalenka had not dropped a set this year in New York but found herself pushed to the limit in a 7-6(1) 3-6 7-6(10-7) win over Linda Noskova to reach her sixth consecutive U.S. Open semi-final.<\/p>\n

The highly anticipated meeting between the Czech Wimbledon winner and the U.S. Open champion lived up to expectations and the Belarusian clinched victory with a second-serve ace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt at some point in the third set she was definitely serving better than me and putting so much pressure on me, but I\u2019m glad that threw that thought away and I was able to focus point by point,\u201d said Sabalenka.<\/p>\n

U.S. fan favourite Tiafoe came back from two sets and a break down to defeat compatriot Alex Michelsen 5-7 3-6 7-5 6-3 7-6(6), flinging his racket to the court in a scene of joy after sealing the win with a signature forehand.<\/p>\n

The marathon match pushed Tuesday\u2019s evening program to a later start, and third seed Jessica Pegula came from behind to see off fellow American Emma Navarro 3-6 6-4 6-3 in a contest that was dubbed by local media as the \u201cBattle of the Billionaires.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pegula, daughter of Buffalo Bills and Sabres owner Terry Pegula, is among three women who could overtake Sabalenka as the world number one at this tournament.<\/p>\n

She extended her record over Navarro, the daughter of billionaire businessman Ben Navarro, to 5-0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Ben Shelton of the United States embraces Carlos Alcaraz of Spain at USTA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":889137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,593,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-889136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-tennis","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}