Carlos Alcaraz’s US Open title defence came to an end in a dramatic five-set quarter-final loss to Ben Shelton that ended at 03:34 local time – the latest finish in the tournament’s history.<\/p>\n
A large crowd remained captivated deep into the night as a modern classic unfolded over an unpredictable four hours and 28 minutes on Arthur Ashe Stadium.<\/p>\n
The match did not begin until about 11pm in New York, after the start of the night session was delayed by Tuesday’s earlier matches.<\/p>\n
At its conclusion, eighth seed Shelton basked in a standing ovation from a delirious audience after completing a 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 6-3 1-6 7-6 (10-7) victory that will live long in the memory of all those present.<\/p>\n
“It is incredible, I always say that this is the greatest stadium in the world,” the 23-year-old said.<\/p>\n
“I’m just hoping my best friend and sister don’t have to be at work at 6am. It would be huge from their employers to let them have the day off.”<\/p>\n
This was the biggest – and certainly most significant – win of Shelton’s career.<\/p>\n
Shelton had not beaten a top-three player in 17 attempts, and had lost each of his three previous matches against Spain’s Alcaraz. <\/p>\n
It also boosted home hopes of a first American men’s singles champion in New York for 23 years.<\/p>\n
Shelton was less than a year old when Andy Roddick won the US Open in 2003 – but an American finalist is guaranteed when he and Frances Tiafoe meet in Friday’s semi-finals.<\/p>\n
World number three Alcaraz was competing at his first tournament since a lengthy injury lay-off, but that is to take nothing away from Shelton, who produced a phenomenal performance.<\/p>\n
Seven-time major winner Alcaraz had exceeded expectations on his return after more than four months out with a wrist injury, including sweeping past 20th seed Tommy Paul to reach the last eight.<\/p>\n
But the 23-year-old’s lack of match fitness appeared to finally catch up with him in a high-octane encounter filled with breathless exchanges and astounding displays of athleticism.<\/p>\n
Even when it appeared Alcaraz had emptied the tank, the two-time winner not only forced a deciding set but would go the distance as the players engaged in a tense 10-point match tie-break that provided a fitting conclusion to the contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz’s US Open title defence came to an end in a dramatic five-set quarter-final loss to Ben…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-619157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}