{"id":892736,"date":"2026-09-12T07:22:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T07:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/892736\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T07:22:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T07:22:24","slug":"shelton-advances-to-us-open-2026-mens-final-for-zverev-showdown-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/892736\/","title":{"rendered":"Shelton advances to US Open 2026 men\u2019s final for Zverev showdown | Tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shelton will now have the chance to become to become the first American man to win a Grand Slam title since 2003.<\/p>\n

Published On 12 Sep 202612 Sep 2026<\/p>\n

Ben Shelton defeated compatriot Frances Tiafoe 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 in an electric US Open semifinal on Friday to secure a title clash with Alexander Zverev and move closer to ending a 23-year American wait \u2060for a men\u2019s singles Grand Slam champion.<\/p>\n

Zverev booked his place in Sunday\u2019s final by fighting past unseeded Russian Karen Khachanov 6-3, 7-6 (9\/7), 7-6 (8\/6) earlier in the day to close in on a second major title.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Victory sent the German top seed into his second final in New York after his runner-up finish \u2060in 2020 to Dominic Thiem.<\/p>\n

Shelton, the big-hitting 23-year-old who took down defending champion Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> in the quarterfinals, now stands one victory away from becoming the first American man to win a major singles title since Andy Roddick hoisted the trophy at Flushing Meadows in 2003.<\/p>\n

With the semifinal lineup having already ensured a Black American man would reach the final, Shelton\u2019s win made him the first to do so in New York since Arthur Ashe in 1972, and at any of the majors since MaliVai Washington at Wimbledon in 1996.<\/p>\n

French Open \u200cwinner Zverev<\/a> was pushed to five sets in each of his opening two rounds, but has now won four straight matches without dropping a set to charge into his third consecutive major final and stand in Shelton\u2019s path.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going for it,\u201d Shelton said. \u201cI\u2019m going to leave it all on the court. I hope you guys come and back me; let\u2019s do this for the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of emotion. My dad, my mum have sacrificed a lot for me to be in this position today. My dad lost his mom earlier this year, and she\u2019s the reason he was able to play tennis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout her, there\u2019s no Ben Shelton standing here today. This one is for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TennisBen Shelton celebrates winning his all-American semifinal match against Frances Tiafoe [Mike Segar\/Reuters]Poignant start to evening<\/p>\n

On a poignant evening \u2060that began with commemorations marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks<\/a>, Tiafoe powered ahead 5-4 when Shelton \u2060produced a double fault, before raising the roof on the main show court with a hold to bag the first set.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a difficult day to be out here playing,\u201d Shelton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy thoughts and prayers are going out to all the families who are impacted by 9\/11. This is one of the greatest cities in the world and one of the biggest tragedies. \u2060But yeah, thoughts and prayers to everyone involved and affected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tiafoe continued to target his opponent\u2019s relatively weaker backhand in the second set, but Shelton dialled up the intensity to draw level and broke in the fifth game of \u2060the third set to take a commanding lead.<\/p>\n

With his booming left-handed serve and his defence proving \u2060impenetrable in the high-octane fourth set, eighth seed Shelton heaped the pressure on late and moved into his maiden major final after a double fault by Tiafoe.<\/p>\n

\"TennisBen Shelton (left) embraces Frances Tiafoe after their semifinal clash [Mike Segar\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

\u201cFrances, he\u2019s like a big brother to me,\u201d Shelton added.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time we get to take this court together, Arthur Ashe Stadium, and play each other is super special. But this is where we want to be at the \u200ctail end \u2026 this is our favourite tournament, our favourite court in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to light it up in front of you guys is the best feeling there is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top seeds Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend earlier secured a team career Grand Slam with a 5-7, 6-0, 6-2 victory over American \u200cwildcards \u200cAshlyn Krueger and Robin Montgomery in the women\u2019s doubles final.<\/p>\n

The action will resume on Saturday when defending champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus faces incoming world No 1 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in the women\u2019s singles final<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shelton will now have the chance to become to become the first American man to win a Grand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,457,82,593,772,1690],"class_list":["post-892736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892736","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=892736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}