{"id":223606,"date":"2026-09-09T17:47:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T17:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/american-ben-shelton-outduels-defending-champ-alcaraz-in-latest-ever-u-s-open-finish-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T17:47:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T17:47:36","slug":"american-ben-shelton-outduels-defending-champ-alcaraz-in-latest-ever-u-s-open-finish-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/american-ben-shelton-outduels-defending-champ-alcaraz-in-latest-ever-u-s-open-finish-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"American Ben Shelton outduels defending champ Alcaraz in latest-ever U.S. Open finish – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

news Alerts
There are no new alerts at this time
There\u2019s leaving it late, and then there\u2019s what Ben Shelton and Carlos Alcaraz just served up at the U.S. Open.
The American star ultimately outdueled the defending champion in the latest ever finish at the tournament, a thriller that didn\u2019t finish until 3:33 a.m. in front of a raucous New York crowd.
The five-set victory takes Shelton to the semifinals, where he will face fellow American Frances Tiafoe<\/a>.
That means there is guaranteed to be an American in Sunday\u2019s final, hoping to end a drought that has seen no U.S. men\u2019s player win a Grand Slam since Andy Roddick in New York in 2003.
Shelton, the No. 8 seed, ended Alcaraz\u2019 18-match winning streak in Grand Slam tournaments in a clash that lasted 4 hours, 28 minutes. At one point, the Spaniard could be seen vomiting into a towel.
The grueling quarterfinal was played under the lights after a day of marathon contests at Flushing Meadows.
The highlight-filled match swung back and forth, with Shelton winning the second and third sets after losing the first on a tie break.
No. 2 seed Alcaraz, who missed most of the season with a wrist injury, won the fourth set 6-1 to set up a grueling final set.
The pair traded blows but ultimately couldn\u2019t be separated until the final set tiebreaker, which Shelton won 10-7.
The epic now stands as the latest finish in the history of a tournament increasingly known for its overnight duels.
That honor had previously been held by another Alcaraz match, against his rival at the top of the sport Jannik Sinner, which finished at 2:50 a.m in the 2022 quarterfinals. That victory helped Alcaraz, then 19, on the way to his first U.S. Open title.
He\u2019ll now set his sights on regaining the form that made him the sport\u2019s leading light.
Three of Tuesday\u2019s four singles quarterfinal matches went to match tiebreakers, the day starting with Aryna Sabalenka edging Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova to keep alive her hopes of a third straight U.S. title.
Tiafoe then outlasted fellow American Alex Michelsen, staging repeated comebacks to set up the semifinal with Shelton.
Thousands of fans stayed to the gripping end, with both Shelton and the popular showman Alcaraz enjoying loud support in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
\u201cIt\u2019s incredible,\u201d Shelton said.
\u201cI always say that this is the greatest sports city in the world, I say that this is the greatest stadium in the world. I\u2019m just hoping that my best friend and my sister over there don\u2019t have to be at work at 6 a.m. in three hours.\u201d
Alcaraz said he could \u201cleave the court happy,\u201d and the seven-time Grand Slam champion offered praise for his American opponent.
\u201cI leave the court with a smile. I am proud of myself, how I fought,\u201d he said. \u201cShelton played a very complete, very mature match,\u201d Alcaraz added in Spanish.
\u201cHe knew exactly what to do at every moment. And, physically, he\u2019s a beast. It seemed like he had no weaknesses whatsoever.\u201d
Shelton summed up the evening. \u201cIt was a war,\u201d he said.
CORRECTION (Sept. 9, 2026, 8:25 a.m. ET)<\/strong>: A headline and a previous version of this article misspelled the first name of an American tennis player. He is Frances Tiafoe, not Francis.
Max Burman is deputy editor in the London bureau of NBC News Digital.
Mark Hodge is a platforms editor for NBC News based in London.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeThere\u2019s leaving it late, and then there\u2019s what Ben Shelton and Carlos Alcaraz just served up at the U.S. Open.The American star ultimately outdueled the defending champion in the latest ever finish at the tournament, a thriller that didn\u2019t finish until 3:33 a.m. in front of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":223607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}