It was a match for the history books. Benjamin Shelton defeated Carlos Alcaraz in the US Open quarterfinal on Arthur Ashe Stadium 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(7) to book his place in the semifinal. The match began on Tuesday evening and did not conclude until the early hours of Wednesday morning — the latest finish in tournament history. Alcaraz, who entered as the second-seeded defending champion and had not dropped a single set since the second round, saw his run of 18 consecutive Grand Slam wins come to an end.
Shelton turns the match — Alcaraz fights back
The opening set was closely contested. Both players dominated on serve and held in each of the first ten games. Alcaraz broke first to take the lead, but Shelton responded immediately with a re-break and forced a tiebreak, which Alcaraz took 7-5. From that point on, however, Shelton turned the match around in impressive fashion: he claimed the second set 6-1 and broke Alcaraz three times in the third without facing any serious trouble on his own serve. The American, who had arrived at the tournament in excellent form after winning the 2026 Canadian Open title, played with precision and variety from the baseline.
In the fourth set, Alcaraz rediscovered his best tennis. He dialled up the pressure on his groundstrokes and produced spectacular defensive points, while Shelton appeared to tighten up for the first time in the match and began sending balls long with increasing frequency. The result was a statement from the Spaniard: a 6-1 set that levelled the match at two sets apiece.
Dramatic match tiebreak in the early hours
The fifth set became a nerve-shredding contest at the highest level. Both players fended off every break attempt — twelve games, not a single break of serve. The most dramatic moment came in the eighth game, when Alcaraz saved three break points and held serve. A brief pause during which Alcaraz appeared visibly troubled did nothing to dent his resolve — he fought on to the very last point.
With neither player able to break the other's serve, a 10-point match tiebreak was required to settle matters. Shelton moved ahead 8-7 when Alcaraz hit a ball long, then sealed victory with an ace to clinch it 10-7, celebrating the biggest win of his career. The statistics reflected the tightness of the contest: Shelton won 87 percent of his service games and converted 31 percent of his break points, while Alcaraz won 79 percent of his service games but racked up 53 unforced errors — significantly more than Shelton's 35.
Historical context and what comes next
Shelton had lost all three of his previous meetings with Alcaraz and had never beaten a player ranked in the world's top three. With this victory, he rewrote his own story: he became only the second player ever to defeat Alcaraz in a five-set match, after Matteo Berrettini at the 2022 Australian Open. The win marked Shelton's third Grand Slam semifinal and his second at the US Open, having previously been stopped at that stage by Novak Djokovic in 2023. Alcaraz, meanwhile, who was competing in his first tournament since April after four and a half months out with a wrist injury, leaves New York without the title — but with a performance that underlined his class even after a lengthy absence.
