An American player will be center stage on Sunday at the U.S. Open men’s singles finals trying to end a 23-year drought. The last American man to win the tournament was Andy Roddick in 2003. Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton will face each other tomorrow in the semifinals. Whoever comes through will have a chance to add their name to a list of U.S. Open champions that also includes the iconic Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, and Pete Sampras. It would also mean becoming the first Black man to win the tournament since Arthur Ashe claimed the inaugural Open era title in 1968.
“The City Never Sleeps” has long been a catchphrase for New York’s five boroughs. It became literal on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning at Arthur Ashe Stadium. In what was the latest finish in U.S. Open history, concluding at 3:33 a.m. Eastern, Ben Shelton outlasted Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, upsetting the two-time (2022, 2025) tournament champion 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7) in their quarterfinal match. It ended Alcaraz’s previously unblemished 13-0 record versus American men in singles matches at the four majors (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, U.S. Open).
“The City of New York showed up tonight until 3 a.m.,” said the 23-year-old Shelton on the court following his thrilling victory. Shelton was born in Atlanta and raised in Gainesville, Florida. His father, Bryan Shelton, is the former men’s tennis coach at the University of Florida.
“I always say that this is the greatest sports city in the world; this is the greatest stadium in the world. I’m just hoping that my best friend, my sister [Emma] up there, don’t have to be at work at 6 a.m. in three hours.”
The fans packed inside Arthur Ashe Stadium at the sprawling USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens didn’t need as many cups of coffee to stay up for Tiafoe’s afternoon match against fellow American Alex Michelsen. Nicknamed “Big Foe,” Tiafoe appeared flat to start his quarterfinals match against the 22-year-old Michelsen, a native of Laguna Hills, California, who jumped out to an early lead, taking the first two sets 7-5 and 6-3.
From two sets and a break down — and another break down in the fifth — Tiafoe, 28, from Hyattsville, Maryland, who after the match joked that he was “asleep in the first couple of hours,” woke up to take the next three sets 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (10-6) in an epic comeback win. The grueling match went 4 hours and 38 minutes. It was the third time in his career that Tiafoe has come from two sets down to win: in 2024 at Wimbledon and at the French Open this past May.
Tiafoe can add this win to his list of memorable U.S. Open moments. He pushed the legendary Roger Federer to five sets as a 19-year-old newcomer in 2017, eventually losing 6-4, 2-6, 1-6, 6-1, 4-6. He also engineered a fourth round upset versus 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal in 2022 and battled Taylor Fritz in a 2024 semifinal five-setter.
With his win against Michelsen, Tiafoe reaches his third U.S. Open semifinal, and joins Andre Agassi as the only American man since 2000 to make three U.S. Open semifinals. “Big Foe” also rises to a career-high ranking of No. 8.
Yesterday, top-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany took on Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands in one quarterfinal contest and in the other Karen Khachanov from Russia met up with Alexander Blockx from Belgium.
