“I didn’t really get nervous serving out the match” – Zverev won the US Open thinking the score was 5-1
Alexander Zverev converted his first match point in the US Open final and did not celebrate, because he believed he was leading 5-1 and still had a game to play. “It helped me in a way, because I didn’t really get nervous serving out the match,” he said after beating Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2.
Alexander Zverev, US Open 2026 | © PsNewz
Alexander Zverev did not know he had won the US Open. Beating Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2 on Sunday night, the German took the title on his first match point and stood on the baseline without reacting, and he explained why a few minutes later.
“I thought it was 5-1,” he said. “I knew I broke him twice, but I thought it was 5-1 instead of 6-2, which helped me in a way, because I didn’t really get nervous serving out the match. Yeah, I just miscounted the score, I guess.”
He had broken Shelton in the first game of the fourth set and again at 4-2, and served the match out at the first attempt.
I think I just forgot the score. It’s not much else to say.
Nothing reached him from outside. “In that moment I was in the zone a lot. I didn’t hear noise at all. I was in this kind of tunnel where I just didn’t hear anything,” he said. “Then also, of course, when the crowd is loud, it’s impossible to hear the umpire, so I didn’t hear that she said, Game, set, match. But at the end of the day, I think I just forgot the score. It’s not much else to say.”
The crowd was not his. “I know that today 99.9 per cent of the people wanted him to win, so I’m very sorry, first of all,” he told Arthur Ashe Stadium during the ceremony. “But second, it was an incredible atmosphere to play in, even though I know that the crowd was against me.”
Six years ago on the same court, in an empty stadium, Zverev led Dominic Thiem by two sets 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. He says that particular weight came off elsewhere.
“I think the scars of the 2020 final, they kind of disappeared after I won in Paris,” he said. “Before winning in Paris, I felt a lot of stress all the time, because there was always a question mark, Will I ever win one? What I think now is just more of a joy to play those kind of finals.”
