- Ben Shelton upset defending U.S. Open champion Carlos Alcaraz in a historic 4-hour 28-minute match ending at 3:33 a.m., the latest finish ever.
- Shelton became the first American to beat Alcaraz at a Grand Slam and is set to face Frances Tiafoe in a semifinal guaranteeing a historic Black American finalist.
- Shelton rose quickly in professional tennis, reaching a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 5 in 2025 as the highest-ranked American male player currently.
It’s almost fitting that New York City is referred to as “The city that never sleeps.”
The New York City Subway operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. From late-night dining to bright lights in places like Times Square, it’s famous for its nonstop energy.
Sleeping would eventually be on the agenda for former Gator tennis player and Buchholz High School alum Ben Shelton, but he earned it.
In an epic battle on Wednesday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens that lasted until the wee hours of the morning, Shelton upset defending U.S. Open champion Carlos Alcaraz.
Shelton’s 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (7) upset victory against the Spaniard ended at 3:33 a.m. local time, marking the latest finish in tournament history. The previous long ended at 2:50 a.m.
The match took 4 hours and 28 minutes to complete and included chants of “Let’s go, Ben!” and “USA!”
“It’s incredible. I always state that New York is the greatest sports city in the world and this is the greatest stadium,” said Shelton, who got his first career win against a top three player. “I’m just so grateful, so blessed. God has blessed me in so many ways.”
The left-hander, who won an FHSAA Class 4A state title at Buchholz his sophomore season in 2019 and then graduated early to attend UF, reached a velocity of 150 miles per hour with his serve (a fault into the net).
His final serve, almost four and a half hours after the start of the match, was a 146-mph ace to clinch it.
Shelton, who had 16 break points overall, finished the match with eight aces, which was almost as many double faults (7) by Alcaraz, who had three aces.
At one point, the 23-year-old Shelton won nine straight games.
On his X account, Alcaraz said, “What a battle Ben! You deserve the win; I wish you the best for the rest of the tournament! I leave here happy with my level after such a long injury. Thank you for the energy NYC! Always a very special place!”
Shelton, who became the first American to defeat Alcaraz (14-1) at a Grand Slam, responded and called the No. 2 seed “Legend.” Alcaraz was also 13-0 against left-handers.
The No. 8 seed Shelton made his own post on Instagram, which read, “BELIEVE! @carlitosalcarazz what a match… ur an animal and sports icon. tennis needs you.”
The win sets up an all-American semifinal tonight at 7 p.m. between Shelton and No. 11 seed Frances Tiafoe. The winner will advance to Sunday’s final against the 3 p.m. winner between No. 1 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany and Russia’s Karen Khachanov, who is currently ranked 50th.
Shelton and Tiafoe will make history as the winner will become the first Black American man to reach the U.S. Open final since Arthur Ashe in 1972.
Friday’s winner will also become the first Black American man to reach any major final since MaliVai Washington (1996 Wimbledon). It’s also the first time in U.S. Open history that two Black American men have played against each other in a major semifinal or final.
The last American man to win the U.S. Open was Andy Roddick in 2003—the longest American drought since the U.S. Open began in 1881.
On Thursday’s podcast, Roddick, who won his sole Grand Slam title at the 2003 U.S. Open, praised Shelton.
“His (Alcaraz) forehand was not landing the way it usually does, but Ben saw that and was able to adjust his game planning based on the moment and the Carlos Alcaraz he saw that night,” he said. “He was breaking fantastically well, been working on his returns. He returned really well, broke serve more than any of us thought he might in this match, and he did a fantastic job…it felt like such a massive growth match for Ben Shelton.”
Roddick claimed Shelton has “a superpower that no one else on Earth has.”
That dominating serve has helped him elevate his game and he has become one of the world’s best tennis players in a short period of time.
After winning both a team national championship with the Gators in 2021, UF’s first in program history, and an individual singles national title in 2022, both under his dad, Bryan Shelton, Ben decided to turn pro.
His professional career skyrocketed quickly. Ben, who was ranked No. 1,829 while at UF in July 2021, began the summer of 2022 ranked No. 547 in the world.
Shelton cracked the top 100 (97) on Nov. 21, 2022, and he landed in the top 20 in the fall of 2023.
His historic semifinal run in 2023 included a 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-2 victory against Tiafoe, oddly enough, in the U.S. Open quarterfinals. He became the youngest American man in three decades to advance to the semifinals, where he lost to eventual champion Novak Djokovic.
That September win moved Shelton up to No. 19 in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings, joining a few area athletes who were excelling professionally. One month later, he moved up to No. 15 after winning the Japan Open.
Two years later, on November 10, 2025, he reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 5 in the world.
He hasn’t fallen outside the top 10 since and in the live ATP Tour standings, Shelton has moved up to No. 4, and he is currently the highest-ranked American in men’s singles.
Family support helped Ben upset Alcaraz.
Soon after Ben made the jump to the ATP Tour, Bryan joined his son full-time as his coach.
“For us, it was just enjoyable to be a part of that match,” said Ben Shelton, whose dad became the first head coach in college tennis history to win a women’s national title (2007 at Georgia Tech) and a men’s national championship at UF (2021). “Obviously the level of tennis, how long the match was going, the fight that it was, how even of a match it was back and forth throughout, I think that that’s something that we can appreciate. Win or lose, we would have a smile on our face.”
Shelton leads Tiafoe 3-1 all-time, but it’s a U.S. Open rubber match against Tiafoe, who rallied from a 2-1 deficit to beat Shelton in five sets, 4-6, 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3 in 2024 (third round).
In their last head-to-head meeting, Shelton defeated Tiafoe 7-6(2), 6-4 in the Washington Quarterfinals in July of 2025.
A win tonight against Tiafoe might not put him at the top of the list of Alachua County’s top 10 athletes of all time, but he could be by the time he is finished.
It would at least put Shelton in a position to win his first-ever Grand Slam major singles title.
Until then, there is no sleep for the weary.