Zverev Wins the US Open After a Vacant Year

Alexander Zverev beat Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2 on Sunday to win the US Open and a second major in a year the top two missed. The No. 1 seed needed 3 hours 33 minutes at Arthur Ashe Stadium, then stood behind the baseline as if a return were still coming.

He thought the score was 5-1. The chair had already called the match. Carlos Alcaraz sat out Paris and London with a wrist injury, Jannik Sinner skipped New York with a knee problem, and Zverev walked through the gap they left.

Zverev Wins a Final He Never Heard

Shelton, 23 and seeded eighth, was in a Grand Slam final for the first time. Zverev, 29, was in his sixth, and his third of 2026. The German broke in the opening game, took the first set on a Shelton double fault, and ran the tiebreak 7-2 after going up 5-0. He closed that breaker with a 147 mph serve.

Shelton finally broke in the 12th game of the third set, ending a streak of 66 straight holds in the matchup, and the building found its voice. Zverev broke to start the fourth, broke again, and lost four points on serve in the set. He won 12 of the last 14 points and finished with an unreturned serve, so locked in he did not hear the call.

The US Open account posted the clip of him waiting to return a ball that was never coming.

HE DIDN'T REALIZE HE'D WON 🏆

Alexander Zverev exorcises his 2020 demons and defeats Shelton 6-3, 7-6, 5-7, 6-2 to win his first US Open title! pic.twitter.com/f0Cnl2xvgI

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 13, 2026

During the second Grand Slam title of the year ceremony, he told the house that 99.9% of it wanted Shelton. He still called the crowd fair. He told his team the wait was over.

We went 30 years without winning a Grand Slam and now we won two in the span of three months. I think God has seen how hard we worked, how much we suffered, how much pain we went through, and I think 2026 is the outcome of all the years that happened before.

Alexander Zverev, trophy ceremony, Arthur Ashe Stadium

He paid his mother next. Doctors told her, when he was 4 and newly diagnosed with diabetes, that sport would be very limited. She walked out of those offices and told them the illness would not set the terms.

The Wrist, the Knee and a Vacant Year

Alcaraz and Sinner had played three straight major finals in 2025. In 2026 they never met in one, because one of them was missing from each of the last three slams. Zverev won the two that Sinner did not finish.

THE 2026 SLAM CALENDAR HE PLAYED

1. Australian Open: Zverev reaches the semifinals. Alcaraz and Sinner are both in the draw.
2. June 7, Roland Garros: Zverev beats No. 10 Flavio Cobolli 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-1 in 4 hours 16 minutes for his first major. Alcaraz is out with a right wrist injury. Sinner loses in the second round in the Paris heat.
3. July, Wimbledon: Sinner beats Zverev in four sets in the final for his first major of the season. Alcaraz is still out.
4. August 21: Sinner announces that a right knee injury forced him out of the US Open, his first missed major since his 2019 debut. He had won the first five Masters 1000 events of the year and sat 44-3 with six titles.
5. September, New York: Alcaraz returns after about five months and reaches the quarterfinals as the No. 2 seed. Shelton beats him 7-6 (5), 1-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-7 (10) in a match that ended at 3:33 a.m., the latest finish in tournament history. Two days later Zverev beats Shelton for the title.

The German lost the only 2026 major final Sinner was healthy enough to play. He won the French Open with Alcaraz gone and the US Open with Sinner gone. That is the season, not a footnote to it.

How the Serve Beat a Full House

Zverev won 84% of first-serve points (68 of 81) and made 70% of first serves (81 of 116), per the ATP sheet. Shelton made more first serves, 75% (92 of 122), and hit 10 aces to 9, but he won only 70% of those first-serve points and converted 1 of 3 break chances. Zverev converted 4 of 6. The point table finished 124-114.

ATP FINAL SHEET, SEPTEMBER 13

He hit 141 mph in the first set and 147 mph in the tiebreak. In a 19-ball exchange in the third, a backhand from deep put Shelton on the court. The American took the set anyway. The fourth set went back to the same pattern: depth, height, and a first serve that kept winning 11 of 12 points even in the set he dropped.

Fans tried to cheer missed first serves and drew a warning from the chair. Zverev bounces the ball 10 times, or a dozen, or nearly 20, with no set count, and the house has to wait through each one. The quietest habit on tour emptied the loudest stadium in tennis for long stretches, which is how a German held a New York final that was supposed to be a home coronation.

He has now won 45 of his past 46 matches against left-handers. Shelton is 0-6 in the series and has taken two sets in those six meetings, one of them on Sunday.

A Career High, and a 23-Year Wait

Shelton came through Frances Tiafoe in an all-American semifinal after the Alcaraz quarterfinal. He was trying to become the first American man to beat the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds on the way to this title since 1975, and the first Black man to win the US Open men’s crown since Arthur Ashe in 1968. Girlfriend Trinity Rodman made it from her own soccer match in Washington. Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and other New York Knicks sat in the box.

He still left with a career-high No. 4 in the ATP rankings dated Sept. 14 and $2.8 million as runner-up. He told Zverev he might be the best player in the world this year. Zverev told him he would be back in this final many more times.

The wait for an American man at a major now runs from Andy Roddick’s Sept. 7, 2003, win over Juan Carlos Ferrero, 8,407 days through Sunday. Taylor Fritz reached the 2024 US Open final and lost to Sinner. Sunday was the second U.S. men’s final in three years, and the drought held again.

AMERICAN MEN IN MAJOR FINALS SINCE 2003

• 2005 US Open: Andre Agassi loses the final to Roger Federer.
• 2006 US Open: Roddick reaches another New York final and falls short.
• 2009 Wimbledon: Roddick loses to Federer 16-14 in the fifth set.
• 2024 US Open: Fritz, the first American man in a Slam final since 2009, loses to Sinner.
• 2026 US Open: Shelton loses to Zverev in four sets.

Roddick was 21 when he won. Shelton is 23. The next chance is the Australian Open in January.

Four Men Have Done This in the Open Era

Zverev is the fourth man in the Open era to win his first two majors in the same season, after Jimmy Connors in 1974, Guillermo Vilas in 1977 and Sinner in 2024. Connors handed him the trophy on Sunday. He is also, with Boris Becker, one of two German men in the Open era with more than one Slam title.

The 2020 final still sits in the record. He led Dominic Thiem by two sets and reached two points from the title, then became the first man since 1949 to lose a major final from two sets up. He had dropped three straight Slam finals by the 2025 Australian Open, the last of them to Sinner, and left that one in tears. This year he made the Melbourne semis, won Paris, lost London, and won New York.

He spent 19 hours 38 minutes getting to Sunday’s final, the fourth-longest such grind at a major since 1991, including five-setters in the first two rounds. After the second round he did not drop a set until Shelton took the third on Sunday. The ATP’s match report lists a tour-leading 53 wins in 2026 and only two titles, both of them majors.

The Live Race Flips After New York

Zverev stays No. 2 in the ATP rankings, 1,810 points behind Sinner. The calendar-year race is a different sheet. He is now first in the Live Race to Turin with 8,650 points, 700 ahead of Sinner’s 7,950. He will drop 1,080 points the rest of the year. Sinner will drop 3,550.

LIVE RACE TO TURIN, POST-US OPEN

The champion’s cheque was $5.5 million, matching Elena Rybakina’s women’s prize from Saturday, inside a USTA record $108 million player compensation package, up 20% from $90 million in 2025. Zverev’s 2026 majors line is 25-2. Shelton sits third in the Live Race. Alcaraz, the defending champion here, sits fourth after the quarterfinal.

He dropped back to return. The stadium told him the match was over. The ranking sheet will take longer to catch the same news.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Much Did a First-Round Loser Earn at the 2026 US Open?

The USTA paid each first-round singles player $140,000, and a player beaten in the first round of qualifying received $32,000, both record figures for those rounds at this tournament.

When Are the 2026 Nitto ATP Finals?

The year-end championships run from Nov. 15 to 22, and both Zverev and Sinner have already qualified for the field in Turin.

Who Was the Last German Man to Win a Grand Slam Before Zverev?

Boris Becker won the 1996 Australian Open, the last major title by a German man until Zverev’s French Open win in June.

Who Won the 2026 US Open Mixed Doubles Title?

Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik won mixed doubles and earned $1 million as a team, the same champion’s cheque the USTA assigned to each doubles-winning pair.