Shelton, on the best run of his season, refuses to let a four-setter become a five against Hurkacz

Ben Shelton is on the best run of his season and playing the tournament he calls the greatest in the world, and on Wednesday evening it took him three hours and 25 minutes under a closed roof to stay in it. The American No. 8 seed beat Hubert Hurkacz 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (3), 7-5 to reach the third round of the US Open.

Shelton plays the winner between Canadian Denis Shapovalov and Frenchman Luca Van Assche.

He was out-aced 14 to six and still won, because he was the more reliable server across the match and the better one at the moments that decided it. Shelton landed 72% of his first serves to Hurkacz’s 58% and served three double faults to the Pole’s seven, one of which opened the third-set tiebreak that Shelton took 7-3.

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Hurkacz saved eight of the 11 break points he faced, which is why the match went four sets rather than three, but Shelton took the three he needed.

It is his 35th win of 2026 and his eighth in nine matches. He has won four titles this season, including a successful defence of the Montreal Masters 1000, and went 9-2 across the North American hard-court swing.

“I do have a lot of confidence right now,” Shelton said on court. “It’s been up and down this year, but I’m really ready to hit my stride. We’re not done yet here. We’re riding the wave.”

Hubi played outstanding today. It was really tough to deal with everything he was throwing at me.

The gap in that record is at this tournament. Shelton reached the semi-finals here in 2023 and has not been beyond the third round since, and the first week has not been comfortable this time either. He lost the opening set of his first-round match before beating Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 (3), 6-2, then needed four sets again on Wednesday.

He was generous about the reason. “I thought that it was a battle to the end,” Shelton said. “I thought Hubi played outstanding today. It was really tough to deal with everything he was throwing at me.”

Asked what this tournament means to him, the New York crowd got the answer it wanted.

“It’s the only time in our sport that you get to hear 20,000 people screaming your name,” he said. “The sports culture here in New York is something that you don’t experience anywhere else in the world. That’s why this is the greatest tournament in the world and this is the greatest tennis stadium in the world.”

Hurkacz, ranked No. 47, had beaten Bosnian Damir Dzumhur 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 in the first round. He has now lost in the second round here seven times without once reaching the third.