Feature
Don’t celebrate until you separate: The Nadal call behind Shelton’s final
After Ben Shelton won Montreal and went out in the first round at Cincinnati a week later, his father called Rafael Nadal to ask how a player backs up a big win. The answer became five words in the Shelton camp, and 48 hours after beating Carlos Alcaraz at three in the morning, his son played the most methodical match of his life.
Zverev cannot lose this on paper, which is exactly his problem
Alexander Zverev has beaten Ben Shelton five times out of five and 44 of his last 45 left-handers, leads the tour in wins and has reached every Grand Slam semifinal this year. He is also 1-7 against the top 10 in 2026 and has not met a top 20 player in this fortnight, which is why beating the world No. 9 in a US Open final would answer the only question still attached to his name.
“I’m not getting younger” – Rybakina’s priority for 2027 is not the career Grand Slam, but health
Elena Rybakina is one tournament from a career Grand Slam and it is the one she has never got past the quarterfinals of. Asked whether Roland-Garros is now the target, the new world No. 1 talked instead about her body and her calendar: "I'm not getting younger.
“It doesn’t feel real”: Rybakina’s ups and downs in New York end with the US Open title
A decade after first playing here as a junior, and having never previously passed the fourth round, Elena Rybakina leaves New York with a third Grand Slam title and the world No. 1 ranking, beating Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 5-7, 6-2. She served out the last game on two double faults and two aces, and admitted afterwards that her nerves had played it rather than her.
“I just wanted to let it go”: Sabalenka explains the racquet, and refuses to have it called a weakness
Aryna Sabalenka broke a racquet seconds after losing the US Open final and then explained why she had to: hold that in, she said, and she would not have been able to speak afterwards.
The summit of the women’s season: Sabalenka meets Rybakina with the ranking settled and everything else still on the line
Khachanov on Zverev’s ball bouncing: “It annoys a lot of players”
September 12, 1992: The day Stefan Edberg beat Michael Chang in the longest-ever US Open match
Shelton beats Tiafoe to become the first Black American man in a US Open final since Ashe
Zverev survives two tie-breaks he was losing against Khachanov, to reach a third straight Grand Slam final
Fifty-eight years after Ashe’s triumph, two Black Americans meet for a place in the US Open final
September 11, 1999: The day Serena Williams won her first Grand Slam title at the US Open
Sabalenka against Rybakina, the champion against the new No. 1: the US Open is set for a thrilling final
The US Open has an identity problem. Does it want to be known as the best, or just the richest?
September 10, 1988: Steffi Graf wins US Open to complete calendar-year Grand Slam
Zverev is off court in 2 hours 17 minutes and into a first US Open semifinal since 2021
Khachanov reaches a first Grand Slam semifinal in three years as Blockx’s body finally gives out
Rybakina on reaching world No. 1: “You appreciate and think about it even more when you finish your career”
The Tiafoe mode: Gauff saves two match points to reach her first US Open semifinal since the title
“Just a number right now”: Rybakina stops Zheng Qinwen and becomes world No. 1 for the first time