{"id":768380,"date":"2026-09-12T13:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T13:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/768380\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T13:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T13:46:08","slug":"us-open-2026-ben-shelton-pays-tribute-to-late-grandmother-after-reaching-first-grand-slam-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/768380\/","title":{"rendered":"US Open 2026: Ben Shelton pays tribute to late grandmother after reaching first Grand Slam final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bryan Shelton, a former professional tennis player, has coached his son full-time since 2023 and was among the first to congratulate him on the four-set win over 11th seed Frances Tiafoe.<\/p>\n

With this victory, Shelton becomes the first black American male to reach the US Open singles final since Arthur Ashe in 1972 and is one step closer to becoming the first US male player to win the US Open men\u2019s singles since\u00a0Andy Roddick<\/a> in 2003.<\/p>\n

Shelton came into Friday\u2019s match off a massive quarter-final victory over defending US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>, and had to fight back from a set down against Tiafoe on his way to winning 4-6 6-3 6-3 7-5.<\/p>\n

Shelton\u2019s double fault in the first set gave Tiafoe an opening, but the world No.8 made a quick comeback and tied the score in the second set.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old carried that momentum into the third set, and while Tiafoe seemed to regain his ground at the start of the fourth set, the surge was short-lived. As the\u00a0Tokyo 2020<\/a> Olympian failed to convert two break points, Shelton came on the attack and sealed his victory in three hours 17 minutes.<\/p>\n

Shelton had lost in the US Open semi-final in 2023. Reflecting on those three years, the 23-year-old said he has \u201cgrown up\u201d a lot since then.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m more mature, more focused. I know what my goal is. I know what my job is out here, and I\u2019m 100% committed to those goals,\u201d Shelton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not easy playing here on Arthur Ashe. You\u2019re playing in front of all your favourite athletes and movie stars, so to be able to keep your head down and focus for over three hours is not an easy task. I keep on looking up at the screen like, \u2018Oh, shoot, Jalen Brunson\u2019s here\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The all-American semi-final was a match tinged with reflection, as the crowds at Flushing Meadows stood to celebrate the winner a quarter of a century after the greatest tragedy that the city has experienced.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a difficult day to be out here playing,\u201d Shelton said in his on-court winners interview on the 25-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks. \u201cMy thoughts and prayers go out to all the families who were impacted by 9\/11. This is one of the greatest, greatest cities in the world, and one of the biggest tragedies. Thoughts and prayers to everyone involved and affected.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bryan Shelton, a former professional tennis player, has coached his son full-time since 2023 and was among the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-768380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}