Ben Shelton finished off Carlos Alcaraz at 3:33 a.m. Wednesday morning in the latest match in U.S. Open history, completing a draw already cleared of its heavyweights: Jannik Sinner had withdrawn pre-tournament with a right knee injury, and Novak Djokovic had fallen to Mariano Navone in the first round. Friday's all-American semifinal between Shelton and Frances Tiafoe now carries the full weight of 23 years without an American Grand Slam title. The case for closing that gap has never been cleaner on paper, and the read-through on every previous case was just as convincing.
Alcaraz entered the quarterfinal with a 13-0 record against American men in Grand Slam matches. Shelton dropped the first set in a tiebreak, won the next two, surrendered the fourth to Alcaraz's best tennis, then won the deciding tiebreak after more than four hours. Shelton's serve and athleticism were never the question. The question was whether he could close out a match this big, at this hour, against a player of that quality. He answered it. That win sits in a different category from the semifinal runs Shelton made in 2023 and Tiafoe made in 2022, or the final Taylor Fritz reached in 2024 before Sinner beat him in straight sets. Shelton is 23. The temptation will be to bank on more shots at this. Dan Marino was 23 the first time he played in a Super Bowl. He never played in another.
Tiafoe's path to the semifinal came harder. He fell two sets and a break behind Alex Michelsen, who had yet to drop a single set in the tournament, then fought back to win in a fifth-set tiebreak. At 28, this is his third Grand Slam semifinal, all at the U.S. Open. After the match he said: "We're going to enjoy this, but we got to keep going." He knows what the semifinal is worth.
The counterargument sits with Alexander Zverev, who is still in the draw. He won the French Open earlier this year, ending the nine consecutive major titles that Sinner and Alcaraz had combined to win. Zverev has closed one before. The risk is his composure under final-Sunday conditions: he will not feel the occasion the way a first-time finalist does, and that experience gap matters regardless of what the bracket says.
On balance, the facts are plain. Andy Roddick last won a Grand Slam singles title for American men at the 2003 U.S. Open. American women have kept delivering: Coco Gauff, Madison Keys, and Sofia Kenin have all won Grand Slam titles this decade. The men have not, and they have never had a draw this open. The line to watch is Sunday afternoon at Flushing, where the drought either ends or the excuses finally run out.