Shelton Beats Alcaraz at 3:33 a.m., Meets Tiafoe in US Open Semis

Ben Shelton knocked defending champion Carlos Alcaraz out of the US Open in a five-set quarterfinal that ended at 3:33 a.m. ET on September 9, 2026 - the latest finish in the tournament's history. The ATP Tour's match report gives the score as 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(10-7) over four hours and 28 minutes, with Shelton trailing 3/5 in the deciding tie-break before taking four of the last five points. The previous US Open late-finish record was 2:50 a.m., set when Alcaraz beat Jannik Sinner in a 2022 quarterfinal, the same report notes, and the defeat ended Alcaraz's 18-match winning streak at the majors.

That result produced an all-American semifinal on Friday, September 11. The ATP Tour's semifinal preview scheduled Shelton against Frances Tiafoe at 7 p.m. ET on Arthur Ashe Stadium, after Alexander Zverev against Karen Khachanov not before 3 p.m. ET on the same court. Tiafoe had come through on September 8, beating fellow American Alex Michelsen 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6(10-6) in four hours and 38 minutes after losing the first two sets, according to the ATP Tour's report. CBS Sports called it the most impressive comeback of Tiafoe's career, pointing out that he had been 2-17 at majors when trailing two sets to love. The semifinal was also a rematch: CBS Sports reported that Shelton beat Tiafoe 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(9-7), 6-2 in the 2023 US Open quarterfinal, on his way to his first Grand Slam semifinal.

What was at stake, in the ATP Tour's framing, was a title rather than a final: each semifinalist was playing to become the first home men's singles champion in New York since Andy Roddick in 2003, a 23-year gap. Reaching the final was not itself a first in that span. Yahoo Sports notes that Taylor Fritz played the 2024 US Open final, the first American man to do so since Roddick in 2006, and that Roddick's 2003 win remains the last by an American man in New York. The 2026 men's final was scheduled for Sunday, September 13.

As of that September 11 order of play, neither semifinal had been played, and Zverev against Khachanov would decide the American's opponent. Recovery was the shared unknown. Shelton's four-and-a-half-hour night match finished in the early hours of September 9, while Tiafoe had been on court for 4 hours 38 minutes earlier on September 8. Beyond the scorelines, neither player's physical condition was described publicly by the ATP Tour or in the tournament's own match reports.