The Zverev Shelton US Open final is set for Sunday, with the German top seed chasing his second Grand Slam title of the year and American underdog Ben Shelton chasing something no U.S. man has managed in 23 years: winning one at all.
The match begins at 2 p.m. ET at Arthur Ashe Stadium, airing on ABC and streaming on the ESPN Unlimited app. It caps a fortnight that has already produced one piece of history and could produce another before the trophy is handed out.
How the Zverev Shelton US Open final came together
Alexander Zverev arrives in career-best form. The No. 1 seed won the French Open earlier this year — his first career Grand Slam title — and Sunday’s match will be his third consecutive major final and sixth overall. He reached the US Open final for the second time, having lost the 2020 title match to Dominic Thiem after leading by two sets. He beat Karen Khachanov in straight sets in Friday’s semifinal, 6-3, 7-6(7), 7-6(6), extending a run of four straight matches without dropping a set.
Shelton’s path was rockier and, by most accounts, more dramatic. The No. 8 seed reached his first career Grand Slam final by beating defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in a five-set quarterfinal that didn’t finish until 3:33 a.m. — the latest conclusion to a match in US Open history. He followed that with a four-set win over fellow American Frances Tiafoe in the semifinal, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-5, in a match that carried its own significance: it was the first Grand Slam men’s semifinal ever to feature two Black American players, according to Al Jazeera’s coverage of the tournament.
A milestone already secured, a bigger one still ahead
By reaching Sunday’s final, Shelton, 23, became the first Black American man to play in the US Open final since Arthur Ashe in 1972. A win Sunday would add a second, larger milestone — he would become the first American man to win a Grand Slam singles title since Andy Roddick beat Juan Carlos Ferrero at the same tournament in 2003, ending a drought that has now stretched across more than two decades of American men’s tennis.
Shelton has been open about what the match means to him beyond his own career. “I’m going for it,” he said after beating Tiafoe. “I’m going to leave it all on the court. I hope you guys come and back me; let’s do this for the US.” He also spoke about the personal weight behind the run, noting that his father lost his own mother earlier this year — the woman he said first made his father’s path into tennis possible.
Why Zverev remains the favorite despite the numbers
History leans toward Zverev, and not only because of his run through this tournament. He holds a 5-0 career head-to-head record against Shelton, having dropped only a single set across those meetings. Sportsbooks have installed him as the clear favorite for Sunday’s final as well, with betting markets pricing Zverev around -152 to Shelton’s +126.
Yet Zverev’s record in Grand Slam finals themselves tells a different story — he has reached six major finals in his career and won only once, a mark that shows even his most dominant runs through a draw haven’t guaranteed him the title when it mattered most. That tension — a lopsided head-to-head against Shelton, but a shakier history when facing anyone in a Slam final — is what makes Sunday’s match harder to call than the pre-tournament seeding alone would suggest.
What’s on the line
Beyond the history at stake, Sunday’s winner takes home a $5.5 million prize, the largest payout in US Open history. For Zverev, a win would mean a second major title in the same season and validation of a year that has already reshaped how he’s viewed among the sport’s elite. For Shelton and the home crowd expected to fill Arthur Ashe Stadium, a win would end a 23-year wait that has outlasted entire careers of American men who came before him.
The result will also help settle the shape of the new world rankings, released the same week as Elena Rybakina’s own breakthrough on the women’s side, where she beat Aryna Sabalenka in Saturday’s final to claim her third Grand Slam title and the No. 1 ranking. For full coverage of how Sunday’s men’s final builds on that storyline, see our continuing US Open final coverage. Whichever man lifts Sunday’s trophy will carry his own share of that momentum into the rest of the season, with the ATP’s remaining fall events likely to be shaped by whichever way this final breaks.
