Ben Shelton pulled off an epic upset in the quarterfinals of the 2026 U.S. Open, beating No. 2 seed Carlos Alcaraz in a five-set stunner. There were highs and lows for both players and two sets that went to tiebreakers, including the deciding fifth that ended with Shelton winning.
But given how late the match started, fans woke up and wanted to know: When exactly did it end? The answer: It was around 3:40 a.m. early Wednesday morning. And of course tennis die-hards reacted as they should have: That is WAY too late for a match to be on for fans to watch.
Shelton and Alcaraz started after 11 p.m. ET in a match that may go down as the best in this year's tournament, with a young American star who could inspire the youths to pick up a racquet. But
were any of those young fans up at that hour?
Ben Shelton to the semis 🔥
— ESPN (@espn) September 9, 2026
Shelton outlasts the defending champion Alcaraz in a five-set thriller! pic.twitter.com/hwrbgvCeof
Fans couldn't believe how late the Ben Shelton match ended
#USOpen #Alcaraz vs #Shelton starting at 11pm on a school night is not going to help today’s youngest sports fans fall in love with tennis and peak sponsor time for television is 8-11pm so yeah.. this idea doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense even though I’m looking forward… pic.twitter.com/zJyqQcv3x9
— Jon Linder (@LinderShowMiami) September 9, 2026
The Carlos Alcaraz-Ben Shelton US Open match is legitimately going to end around 3 or 4 in the morning.
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) September 9, 2026
Shelton is legit. Still crazy they started a marquee match at 11 pm EST. https://t.co/rFN5cSorCn
— Troy Renck (@TroyRenck) September 9, 2026
gee, would've loved to watch. started after 11pm and went to 3:33am. US Open has to fix this. https://t.co/3X3YgIkAdN
— Daniel Roberts (@readDanwrite) September 9, 2026
Match starting at 11pm: this is ridiculous
— tryler (@tylerlauletta) September 9, 2026
Match still going at 1:45am: come on man
Match still going on at 3:32am: the us open can never get rid of late tennis this is when the sport was meant to be played
Why are U.S. Open matches on so late?
From The Athletic:
A late finish on quarterfinal night is a fairly regular occurrence. Players are evenly matched, so matches tend to go longer. What has made the situation increasingly problematic are certain factors that are well beyond the U.S. Tennis Association’s control.
Tennis is getting more physical. Matches last longer. The 30-second serve clock hasn’t necessarily speeded up play. It’s also encouraged some players to use nearly all 25 seconds before each serve to reset their brains and their lungs.
An argument for why the Ben Shelton match had to start late
Seeing a lot of people blaming the USTA for this, its not ideal that Alcaraz and Shelton will start close to 11 but I'm really not sure what else the USTA could've done differently here.
— Tennis Updates (@TennisUpdates26) September 9, 2026
You're not moving a QF to Armstrong, and the day session just happened to produce 2 epics… https://t.co/IUdFhv2pJL
Given the complaints, though, maybe this is something that will be looked at by U.S. Open organizers.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Wait, the Ben Shelton U.S. Open upset ended at WHAT time?!
