He says “bye” to the US Open 2026. The Spanish Carlos Alcaraz was eliminated in the early hours of this Wednesday from the United States Open against the American Ben Shelton, after reaching the quarterfinals on his return to the courts after almost five months out due to injury.
Shelton defeated Alcaraz 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6 and 7-6(7) in an epic match that lasted 4 hours and 28 minutes and ended after 3:30 in the morning in New York, the city that does not want to sleep, breaking the record of Alcaraz himself and the Italian Jannik Sinner in 2022 by more than 40 minutes.
Shelton will face his compatriot Frances Tiafoe in the semifinals this Thursday, which ensures the presence of an American in Sunday’s final, who will seek to end the local drought that has lasted since Andy Roddick’s victory in 2003.
Alcaraz will not be able to defend the title he won last year on the New York track. The last one to do so was the Swiss Roger Federer with five consecutive titles between 2004 and 2008.
The Murcian tennis player chose New York to return to the ring after almost five months away from the courts due to a wrist injury in the Conde de Godó Tournament. It was an epic comeback in which he surprised and improved round by round, until he ran into Shelton.
Shelton, number 9 in the world, had never beaten a ‘top 3’ player. In fact, his balance was 0-17. But the American disguised himself as Novak Djokovic, subtracting like never before and got the Murcian out of his depth for much of the duel.
roller coaster
Alcaraz and Shelton began their match with great caution, even respect, which started after 11:00 p.m. at the Arthur Ashe, the central venue in Flushing Meadows, in Queens.
Until 5-5, neither had a single break opportunity, with a more than solid serve that made one think of a long match and the possibility of several tie-breaks.
There came Alcaraz’s change of pace, a blank break to serve for the first set, but he let the next one slip away with four unforced errors, a sample of what was to come.
Thus they reached a ‘tie-break’ with multiple mini-breaks after the accumulation of errors by Alcaraz, which Shelton saw won but which the Murcian ended up taking forward at the last moment.
That first set fell to Alcaraz, but the match was still far from being decided. After maintaining both the first two games with a lot of work, the Murcian conceded three breaks in a row for Shelton’s 6-1 in the second set.
Shelton, a player with difficulties for the rest and the worst in the ‘top 20’ in rallies of more than five strokes, was growing. Alcaraz’s attitude, very upset, was reminiscent of the 2024 match against Botic van de Zandschulp.
His errors, left to the net, long forehands or into the net, accumulated one after another. The Murcian finished the match with 53 unforced errors, for only 38 winners. Shelton, on the other hand, only committed 35 unforced errors.
After losing 9 games in a row, four of them breaks, Alcaraz stopped the bleeding with a scoreless game to make it 3-1 in the third set. The Murcian, however, could not recover from the break and ended up also losing the third set 6-3.
Alcaraz, who had shown signs of life at the end of the third, resurfaced in the fourth, with an early break to Shelton that consolidated the lead to 3-0. The Murcian left everything on the court and scored another break to end up winning that round 6-1.
The reaction came with a physical toll, as Alcaraz vomited twice on a towel during that fourth set.
Alcaraz and Shelton once again protected their serves in the last set. The Murcian defended three break balls that would have put Shelton 5-3 on serve and the last set went to a ‘super tie-break’ that, this time, fell to the American.
Until this day, Alcaraz was 15-1 in his five-set matches, with only one defeat at the hands of Matteo Berrettini in his beginnings as a professional.
(With reports from Albert Traver, of EFE)
