Shelton and Alcaraz meet for spot in US Open semis
Tiafoe breaks Michelsen’s heart with epic comeback
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3m agoShelton breaks in 12th game of first set!
6m agoAlcaraz breaks in 11th game of first set!
First set tiebreak: Shelton 1-1 Alcaraz* (*denotes next server)
Alcaraz wins the first point on Shelton’s serve to immediately go up a minibreak. But Shelton responds with the point of the night – the point of the tournament? – a hyperkinetic 12-shot exchange that sees both players cover almost every inch of the court and make at least three impossible shots before Shelton puts away an overhand smash for 1-all. The fans are on their feet!
First set: Shelton 6-6 Alcaraz
Just when it seems like the first set is a fait accompli, Alcaraz mixes in a couple of unforced errors for love-30. He recovers with a forehand winner for 15-30, but Alcaraz then sails a forehand far past the baseline for 15-40. It’s Shelton’s first break-point chance of the match and he’s got two of them. And he converts the first when Alcaraz overcooks another forehand badly! We’re headed to a tiebreak.
First set: Shelton 5-6 Alcaraz* (*denotes next server)
A tightly wound opening set is in danger of going sideways for Shelton in the blink of an eye. He quickly goes down love-40 on his serve, giving Alcaraz three chances at a break point. He needs only one of them, forcing the American into a forehand error from the baseline. He will serve for the set after the change of ends.
First set: *Shelton 5-5 Alcaraz (*denotes next server)
Alcaraz holds at love for the first time tonight.
First set: Shelton 5-4 Alcaraz* (*denotes next server)
Maybe the first truly big point of this match at 4-all, 30-30. And Alcaraz blinks first, dumping a forehand into the net. Shelton then holds after getting the better of Alcaraz over an 11-shot rally, punctuating it with a small fist pump and a shot along the baseline.
First set: *Shelton 4-4 Alcaraz (*denotes next server)
Alcaraz appears on the verge of another drama-free hold at 40-15, having won 16 of the first 22 points on his racket. But he double-faults. Then he double-faults again for deuce. A chance for Shelton here. But Alcaraz snuffs it out in a hurry, peeling off two quick points to escape with the hold.
First set: Shelton 4-3 Alcaraz* (*denotes next server)
Another pressure point for Shelton as he goes down 15-30 on his serve, but he’s able to serve his way out of trouble. We’re still on serve heading into the business end of the opening set.
First set: *Shelton 3-3 Alcaraz (*denotes next server)
Another stress-free hold for Alcaraz, who’s won eight of 12 points on his first serve (67%) and four of five on his second (80%).
First set: Shelton 3-2 Alcaraz* (*denotes next server)
An even breezier service game from Shelton, who holds to love. During the changeover, the cameras pan to a few of the celebrities in the audience. There’s Kevin Hart taking it in from a suite. And, of course, there’s USA and Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman, Shelton’s girlfriend, watching from his player box. We’ve also heard Simone Biles is in the building somewhere.
First set: *Shelton 2-2 Alcaraz (*denotes next server)
Alcaraz goes behind on his serve for the first time at love-15 but holds comfortably from there.
First set: Shelton 2-1 Alcaraz* (*denotes next server)
Shelton faces his first pressure point of the night at 30-all, but comes to net with Alcaraz out of position and deftly puts away a volley winner. Shelton then closes out the hold with a searing inside-out forehand winner from the baseline to settle a seven-shot exchange. The shot-making ignites the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd and Shelton obliges them with a fist pump.
First set: *Shelton 1-1 Alcaraz (*denotes next server)
Alcaraz races out to 40-15, then gets caught flat-footed on a Shelton drop shot, which is something you don’t see very often. No matter. On the next point Alcaraz pounds a serve out wide that Shelton can’t return and closes out the easy hold.
First set: Shelton 1-0 Alcaraz* (*denotes next server)
Shelton drops the opening point on his serve with an unforced error off the forehand, but follows it with a 145mph ace down the middle that draws audible oohs from the crowd. Shelton then gets to game point before netting a forehand from the baseline for 40-30, but Alcaraz goes long on a return on the next point and Shelton holds.
Not much longer now. The players have gone through their warm-up. We should be under way any moment now with Shelton set to serve first.
Here is probably the clearest measure of the task facing Shelton tonight: he is 0-17 against top-three opponents. His overall record against the top five is 4-21, with wins over Casper Ruud, Jannik Sinner, Daniil Medvedev and Taylor Fritz – but never anyone ranked in the top three. Alcaraz, currently world No 3, would therefore represent the biggest win of his career.
What’s more, Alcaraz has never lost to an American at a grand slam: 13 wins from 13 matches. That includes his five-set victories over Frances Tiafoe at this tournament in 2022 and Wimbledon two years later, as well as his four-set win over Shelton at Roland Garros last year.
Jessica Pegula has just finished off Emma Navarro 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to reach the US Open semi-finals. The No 3 seed advances to a hotly anticipated showdown with top seed Aryna Sabalenka on Thursday night. That means we should see Shelton and Alcaraz on court shortly after 11pm local time.
Good evening from Arthur Ashe Stadium, where Carlos Alcaraz and Ben Shelton are set to close out Tuesday’s US Open night session with a peach of a quarter-final.
Alcaraz is the defending champion, the No 2 seed and increasingly looks as though his four-and-a-half-month absence with a wrist injury never happened. He enters tonight on an 18-match winning streak at grand-slam level, having won last year’s US Open and this year’s Australian Open, and is now an eye-popping 31-1 at the majors since the start of the 2025 French Open.
The numbers in New York are similarly formidable. Alcaraz owns a 28-3 career record at the US Open, a .903 winning percentage that is the best by any man in the Open era, better than Pete Sampras, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. He has reached at least the quarter-finals in five of his six appearances here, winning the title in 2022 and again last year.
But Shelton is no doormat. The 23-year-old American is 12-2 on hard courts this summer and won his second Masters 1000 title last month in Montreal without dropping a set. He has already taken out Hubert Hurkacz, Denis Shapovalov and Stefanos Tsitsipas during this run, brushing aside the latter in straight sets on Sunday to reach his third major quarter-final.
There is one glaring hole on Shelton’s résumé. He is 0-17 against top-three opponents and has lost all three previous meetings with Alcaraz. Their most recent encounter, at Roland Garros last year, was at least competitive: the Spaniard won 7-6 (8), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
And tonight the American has something those previous meetings lacked: Arthur Ashe Stadium in full throat. Shelton first announced himself here with his semi-final run three years ago and will be trying to become only the second American man in the past 20 years to beat a top-three opponent at the US Open.
Frances Tiafoe is already waiting in the last four on Friday after his extraordinary comeback against Alex Michelsen earlier today. Will it be two US players in a row on Alcaraz’s second-week menu, or will Shelton ensure an all-American semi-final in the bottom half of the draw?
Jessica Pegula and Emma Navarro are currently late in the third set of their quarter-final match on Ashe. Once they finish it should be about 20 minutes before Shelton and Alcaraz take the court.
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s his report from Frances Tiafoe’s epic comeback earlier today at Flushing Meadows.
