Zverev, Shelton Contest US Open Men's Final Sunday — SkimNews
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- Alexander Zverev and Ben Shelton meet in Sunday's US Open men's final, with the German top seed already a French Open champion this year and Shelton bidding to become the first American man in 23 years to win a Grand Slam singles title since Andy Roddick in 2003.
- Shelton could become the first Black American man to win a singles major since Arthur Ashe in 1975 — a milestone former world number four James Blake said would inspire Black viewers in a sport 'historically dominated by the sense of a country club white sport.'
- Shelton won four titles on different surfaces this season — Dallas, Munich, Stuttgart, and the Canadian Open — and earned his first career win over a top-three opponent by beating seven-time major champion Carlos Alcaraz in a US Open quarter-final ending at 3:34 a.m.
- Zverev, 29, lost three previous major finals before breaking through at this year's French Open and has now reached three successive Grand Slam finals, including a runner-up finish to Jannik Sinner at Wimbledon.
- Jannik Sinner is ruled out of the US Open and Alcaraz missed the French Open and Wimbledon due to injuries, breaking the 'Sincaraz' stranglehold after the pair swept all four Grand Slams in 2024 and 2025.
- Shelton has lost all five previous meetings against Zverev, who is a slight favourite to claim his second major title of 2026.
Why it matters: A Shelton title would end a 23-year American men's Grand Slam drought and create a watershed moment for Black representation in a sport Blake called 'historically dominated by country club white' culture. A Zverev win would prove the Sinner-Alcaraz monopoly is cracked, not merely paused by injury.
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