“Maybe the best player in the world this year”: Zverev makes it two majors in 2026, and only Alcaraz and Sinner beat him at one on the big stage
Alexander Zverev won the US Open on his first match point and did not appear to realise the match was over, six years after losing the same final from two sets up in an empty stadium. Beating Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2 gives him a second Grand Slam title in the year he won his first, with only Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner beating him at a major in 2026.
Alexander Zverev, US Open 2026 | © AP Photo/Frank Franklin II/SIPA
Alexander Zverev won the US Open on Sunday night in New York, beating Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2 to take his second Grand Slam title of a season in which he won his first. He is the fourth man in the Open era to do that, after Jimmy Connors in 1974, Guillermo Vilas in 1977 and Jannik Sinner in 2024.
Two men beat him at a major this year. Carlos Alcaraz did it at the Australian Open and Sinner did it in the Wimbledon final. Everybody else he played across four Grand Slam tournaments he beat, for a record of 25-2 at that level and 24 wins in a single season before this final, which was already the most by a German man in history, passing Boris Becker’s 22 from 1989.
“Sascha, you’re one of the very best players in the world, maybe the best player in the world this year”, Shelton said. “What you’re doing is incredible. The way you’re serving, moving, and playing. You work harder than anyone I know. You put more hours on the court than anyone I know. You and your team do things the right way. Sincerely happy for you guys to hold this title. It’s been a long time coming here.”
Zverev becomes the second German to win this title, after Becker in 1989, the fifth active player with more than one major alongside Novak Djokovic, Alcaraz, Sinner and Stan Wawrinka, and the first man born in the 1990s to win two. It was his 53rd win of a season he already led, and it takes him 700 points clear at the top of the race to Turin.
A first serve, and a long wait for a look at it
It was decided by Zverev’s first serve and by how long Shelton had to wait to get at it. The German won 93% of the points behind it across the first two sets, 39 of 42, and the American did not earn a single break point until 3-2 in the third. Both breaks in the opening set ended on Shelton double faults, and the second went to a tie-break Zverev led 5-0 and took 7-2.
When Shelton found the range the third set was his quickly: 90% behind his own first serve, unforced errors down from 18 to seven, 36 of the 62 points, and the break at 5-6 when Zverev put a forehand volley out having had an easy forehand the shot before. It was the first set Zverev had lost since the second round.
He did not appear to notice that he had won
The most telling detail of the night came after it. Zverev took the title on his first match point and seemed not to register that the match was over.
It is of a piece with what he said here about the change a first major made to him. Asked whether losing the 2020 US Open final from two sets up had left scar tissue, he said it had, and then that it had gone. “It did until I won in Paris,” he said. “There was question marks, there was doubts whether I was ever going to win one, for sure. I talked about it quite openly before. Now that I’ve won one, it’s okay.”
Six years ago, on the same court and in an empty stadium, he led Dominic Thiem two sets to love in this final and lost, becoming the only man in history to win a Grand Slam semifinal from two sets down and then lose the final from two sets up.
The line on his record that is now shorter
The title also settles the argument that ran alongside him all fortnight. Zverev arrived at the final 1-7 against top 10 opponents in 2026 and 6-20 against them at Grand Slam level, and had not played a top 20 player in six matches here. Shelton is ranked No. 9.
He has now beaten him six times out of six, and has won 45 of his last 46 matches against left-handers since Roland-Garros 2023, 14 out of 14 of them at majors.
For Shelton, 23, it was a first Grand Slam final and the wait goes on. No American man has won a major since Andy Roddick at this tournament in 2003, a drought now past 8,407 days and the longest in the country’s history. He was the first Black American man in a US Open final since Arthur Ashe in 1972.
