NEW YORK (AP) — Ben Shelton won the all-American duel with Frances Tiafoe and now he's the one who can end his country's long wait for another men's Grand Slam champion.
Shelton pulled out a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 victory on Friday and will play No. 1 seed Alexander Zverev on Sunday for the U.S. Open title.
The No. 8-seeded Shelton had plenty of energy left after ousting defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in a quarterfinal match that ended Wednesday at 3:33
a.m., the latest finish ever at the U.S. Open.
Now he needs to stop French Open champion Zverev to give the host nation its first men's major winner since Andy Roddick at the 2003 U.S. Open.
“Hopefully I can not make the American dream come true on Sunday,” Zverev said.
Zverev beat Karen Khachanov 6-3, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (6) in the first semifinal.
The Shelton-Tiafoe match drew a star-studded crowd that included stars from sports, including Serena Williams, Jalen Brunson and of course U.S. soccer player Trinity Rodman, Shelton’s girlfriend; and actors Salma Hayek, Ben Stiller and Rami Malek.
Shelton and Tiafoe treated the fans to a good show, after both had to come through match tiebreakers in the previous round. Shelton, a 23-year-old from Georgia who was less than a year old when Roddick won his title, advanced to his first major final.
Tiafoe fell to 0-3 in the U.S. Open semifinals, the last two against fellow Americans. Taylor Fritz beat him in 2024 before losing to Jannik Sinner.
After a ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in which a giant American flag was unfurled across the court, it was Tiafoe who played the cleaner tennis in the first set. He committed just three unforced errors to 14 by Shelton, whose double-fault at 4-4 gave Tiafoe the break he needed.
But after falling behind, Shelton started serving bigger, and finished with 20 aces.
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