NEW YORK (AP) — Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe had a packed crowd sprinkled with celebrities cheering equally for them, as the two fan favorites fought to reach their first major final.
The crowd figures to be almost entirely on Shelton’s side Sunday, because now he’s the American hope to end a lengthy Grand Slam drought.
Shelton pulled out a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 victory on Friday and will play No. 1 seed Alexander Zverev on for the U.S. Open title. The host nation hasn’t had a men’s major winner since Andy Roddick won in Flushing Meadows in 2003.
“I’m going for it here, and I’m going to leave it all on the court,” Shelton said. “I hope you guys come and back me. Let’s do it for the USA.”
The No. 8-seeded Shelton had plenty of energy left after ousting defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in a quarterfinal match that ended Wednesday at 3:33 a.m., the latest finish ever at the U.S. Open.
Now he needs to stop the French Open champion, who knows what’s at stake for the other side.
“Hopefully I can not make the American dream come true on Sunday,” Zverev said.
Zverev beat Karen Khachanov 6-3, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (6) in the first semifinal.
Shelton and Tiafoe drew a star-studded crowd that included stars from sports, including Serena Williams, Jalen Brunson and of course U.S. soccer player Trinity Rodman, Shelton’s girlfriend; and actors Salma Hayek, Ben Stiller and Rami Malek.
“This is where we want to be: at the tail end of this tournament,” said Shelton, a 23-year-old from Georgia who was less than a year old when Roddick won his title. “This is both of our favorite tournament in the world, our favorite court in the world and to be able to light it up in front of (this crowd) is the best feeling that there is.”
Tiafoe fell to 0-3 in the U.S. Open semifinals, the last two against fellow Americans. Taylor Fritz beat him in 2024 before losing to Jannik Sinner.
“I wanted to be in a Grand Slam final. Obviously it was a big match,” Tiafoe said. “Ben played well tonight. Served really well tonight, which made it really tough on me.”
After a ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in which a giant American flag was unfurled across the court, it was Tiafoe who played the cleaner tennis in the first set. He committed just three unforced errors to 14 by Shelton, whose double-fault at 4-4 gave Tiafoe the break he needed.
But after falling behind, Shelton started serving bigger, and finished with 20 aces.
Serving with new balls at 3-all in the second set, Shelton hit a 125 mph serve — Tiafoe got his racket up almost in self-defense and ended up getting knocked backward to the court — and followed it with serves clocked at 144, 139 and 140, the last two for aces that gave him the lead for good in the set.
The pivotal moment in the match came in the final game of the third set, when Tiafoe was desperately trying to hold serve. The game lasted 15 minutes and 20 points before Tiafoe put a forehand into the net to end it and move Shelton a set away from the title.
Tiafoe had his own marathon in the quarterfinals, coming from two sets down and then erasing a 3-0 deficit in the fifth set to edge fellow American Alex Michelsen. He seemed to get slightly more cheers early, but the crowd was loud for both players as the match went on.
Zverev finishing strong after a slow start to the tournament
Zverev, who had long been considered the best men’s player without a major, finally broke through at the French Open this year. The German followed by reaching the Wimbledon final, where he lost to Sinner, and is 24-2 in Grand Slam matches this season.
“Sometimes just things go your way and I feel like I’ve had a lot of struggles at the major level, I was so close so many times, and maybe this year God has said that this is going to be your year and just enjoy the time on the court,” Zverev said.
Now he will try to win the title that he still can’t believe he let get away in 2020. Zverev won the first two sets against Dominic Thiem but then lost in a fifth-set tiebreaker, as Thiem became the first man to win the U.S. Open title after dropping the first two sets since 1949.
Zverev has won 13 consecutive sets after becoming the first No. 1-seeded man to play five-setters in each of the first two rounds of a major.
Khachanov was trying to reach his first major final after a surprising run in New York. He arrived with a losing record for the season but went on to reach his third Grand Slam semifinal, including second at the U.S. Open. At No. 50, he was bidding to become the lowest-ranked U.S. Open finalist since the ATP rankings began in 1973.
He might have defeated Zverev early in the tournament. The No. 1 seed at a major for the first time after Sinner pulled out with a knee injury, Zverev had to go the distance against Lorenzo Sonego and Quentin Halys in his first two rounds, spending nearly 9 1/2 hours on the court.
He said he and his team laughed about how poorly he was playing after the second match.
“That kind of sense of humor, it helped me,” Zverev said. “Moving forward, I was playing much better tennis. Obviously I have improved a little bit. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be in the U.S. Open final.”
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