At the top. Six years had to pass since that lost final in 2020 for the German Alexander Zverev to heal his wound with the conquest of the “United States Open 2026” by defeating the American Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7 and 6-2, the finishing touch to a magical 2026 in which he also won Roland Garros.
Zverev, 2 in the world, needed 3 hours and 33 minutes to get rid of Shelton, who was playing in his first final in a ‘major’ and who will leave New York as the new ATP number 4, his best ranking, behind Carlos Alcaraz.
Shelton was, precisely, Alcaraz’s executioner in the quarterfinals and this Sunday he carried the responsibility of breaking the United States’ drought in New York, where no man has lifted the title since Andy Roddick in 2003.
The last American to try, without success, was Taylor Fritz in 2024, defeated by Jannik Sinner.
The king of the 1990s
With the title in Queens, NY, Zverev became the player with the most ‘greats’ born in the 1990s, a generation that has been eclipsed by the long life of the ‘Big Three’ – Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer – and the precocity of Alcaraz and Sinner.
Only the Austrian Dominic Thiem and the Russian Daniil Medvedev, with one title each, both in New York, are the other players of that decade with ‘greats’ on their record.
Thiem’s was against Zverev, in the 2020 final, with Arthur Ashe with barely any audience due to the pandemic. Zverev was up two sets and serving for the title in the third in a final in which he collapsed and ended up losing.
That final left an open wound in Zverev that, according to the German himself, took more than five years to heal until he won Roland Garros this 2026 in his fourth ‘major’ final. The victory against Shelton finally healed her.
Zverev becomes a doctor
Alexander Zverev entered the final with a 5-0 record against Shelton, a player who until he defeated Alcaraz on Wednesday had never beaten a ‘Top 3’ in 17 previous matches.
The pressure took its toll on Shelton at the start. The American was in tow from the first game of the match, which he gave up with a double fault. Another double fault from Shelton gave Zverev the first set with a second break.
The German tennis player became strong on serve, with more than 90% won on the first serve, and sought to break Shelton’s rhythm with long pauses between points and endless bounces of the ball, something that his rival in the semifinals, the Russian Karen Khachanov, already complained about.
Shelton didn’t get his first break opportunity until the third set.
But first, both took the second to the tie-break after holding their respective serves. Zverev took a 5-0 lead in the tiebreaker with two mini breaks and after losing two points to the rest he took the set in the first of four balls.
Zverev tried to repeat the script in the third: not take risks and let his rival make mistakes. But in a moment of weakness, on the verge of a tie-break, Shelton went 0-40 with three set points to make it 7-5. He saved one, but lost the set.
The German, who had not lost a set since the second round, responded with a break in the first game of the third set, a mountain that Shelton could no longer climb. Zverev broke again in the seventh for 5-2, an insurance of life.
Zverev won with his serve after a long return from Shelton, but that last point left a curious image: it took the German several seconds to realize that the match was over and that he had just been proclaimed champion, taking over from Carlos Alcaraz.
With his victory in New York, Alexander Zverev becomes the best player of 2026, surpassing Sinner in points in the race to the ATP Finals in Turin. In the general ranking, Zverev is 1,810 points behind Sinner, 11,500 to 9,690, with Alcaraz with 5,560.
(With report from Albert Traver, from EFE)
