5-set war: How Ben Shelton beat Carlos Alcaraz at the US Open

“It’s crazy. It’s incredible athleticism from both of those guys.

The words came from the commentary box almost before the crowd could process what they had just seen.

Carlos Alcaraz sent Ben Shelton running to his left with a pass that seemed certain to end the point. Shelton dove left, somehow got the racquet to the ball, then turned and ran back to the middle of the court. In a few frantic heartbeats, he went from desperately stretching to one side to regain his balance, lifting a lob past Alcaraz with enough height and timing to keep the point alive.

Arthur Ashe Stadium exploded.

It was only a first set tiebreak. There were still hours left. But that point felt like a warning of what was to come. Speed. Urine. Instinct. Two athletes who refuse to give up the ball even when the spike seems to have slipped out of reach. For the next three hours and several minutes there were variations on the same theme.

Shelton would end up calling it a war.

“I’m tired,” he said after the contest, which lasted four hours and 28 minutes.

“It was a war, an epic match. So physical.

He just spent a little over four hours trying to knock out the defending US Open champion and he finally did it with a 146 mph ace at 3:33 in the morning.

This wasn’t Sinner vs. Alcaraz, where two exceptional athletes can spend a match changing rhythm, manipulating angles, and trying to drag each other into unknown territory. This was something more direct. More visceral. It was aggression from both sides of the net.

Not looking at Alcaraz’s power, Shelton decided he had to find another way around it. He met it. He returned it. He tried to break through it. Alcaraz, when he was at his best, did exactly the same thing. Power met power and the Arthur Ashe crowd loved every second of it.

Shelton’s submission gave the match a thunderbolt.

The American left-hander repeatedly pushed the 150 mph mark and reached 149 mph. Fifty-four of his 156 submissions went unreturned. He won 70 percent of the points on the first serve and 57 percent on the second serve. Even though Alcaraz knew what was coming, there were times when knowing wasn’t enough.

There were 145 mph bombs. Ace 148 mph up the middle. A 146 mph rocket that ultimately ended the game. But the filing itself does not explain what happened.

Shelton had to be willing to play after the submission. That was perhaps the most impressive part of the night. When Alcaraz got a racket on the ball, he didn’t panic. He stayed in the exchanges. He attacked the shorter one. He trusted his forehand. He came through behind serve and won eight of nine points at the net in the opening set.

And then there was Alcaraz doing what Alcaraz does.

The first set was a warning that it would be decided by the smallest difference. Shelton led 5-3 in the tiebreak and was two points away from winning the set. Alcaraz responded with four straight points. Even in that frantic sequence, Shelton made that extraordinary recovery, reached for the pass, turned, somehow found the lob. He still lost the set.

For most players, this may have been the moment when the match began to drift away. For Shelton, it was the start of his best stretch.

SEIZE THE MOMENT

Ben Shelton and Carlos Alcaraz (Reuters photo)

Something changed in the second set. The American’s return was more aggressive. Alcaraz’s first serve percentage dropped sharply, from 65 percent in the opening set to 50 percent in the second. Sensing an opening, Shelton followed.

Errors started coming from the other side.

Alcaraz has looked so comfortable in his first four matches at the tournament and his return from a four-and-a-half-month layoff has looked almost seamless. He has not played competitively since April due to an injury to his right wrist. Until Shelton arrived, there was little evidence that his long absence had taken anything away from him.

But this was a different examination.

Against Shelton’s tempo, Alcaraz’s timing seemed a half bar late at times. A forehand that usually finds the corner found the net. A ball that normally returns with depth sometimes floated short. Frustration grew. By the end of the second set, Alcaraz had committed 32 unforced errors to Shelton’s 13. Shelton won the set 6-1.

Then came another.

He won nine straight games in the second and third sets, turning a match Alcaraz was in control into something close to doom. Shelton was up 3-0 in the third race and kept asking himself the same question: could Alcaraz live with that pace?

For a moment, the answer seemed to be no. That was the remarkable thing about Shelton’s performance. He didn’t wait for Alcaraz to destroy himself. It forced him to work at a speed and intensity that left very little room for error.

Alcaraz eventually found that room, as he always has in his nascent but remarkable career. The fourth set was his answer.

He soon broke Shelton, took the ball with renewed conviction and pushed the American back to the baseline. A player who looked frustrated and physically exhausted suddenly looked like the seven-time Grand Slam champion that he is. Shelton’s advantage disappeared almost as quickly as it came.

Alcaraz won the fourth 6-1.

HOLDING SERVANTS AND NERVES

The war had its last chapter.

The fifth set was more about nerves. Not a single man could break. At 4-4, Shelton got to touch and set up break points, but Alcaraz escaped. The American’s serve, which had carried him through so much of the night, held up when the pressure was greatest. It was almost fitting that the match should have ended in a tiebreak. The crowd, despite knowing that the office was only a few hours away, was ready for it and buckled up.

Shelton went up 3-1 and took an early minibreak. Refusing to go quietly, Alcaraz turned around to lead 5-3. At 6-6, the match was almost entirely about who could last one more strike. Shelton landed. He took an 8-6 lead and delivered the decisive blow two points later. Serving 146 mph. Alcaraz didn’t make it.

Game. File. Wrestle.

Shelton survived the comeback, the pressure, the late hour and the refusal of the defending champion to disappear.
The numbers told part of the story. Shelton hit 34 winners and Alcaraz 38. Alcaraz actually controlled the longer rallies. But Shelton committed just 35 unforced errors to Alcaraz’s 53 and won 55 percent of rallies lasting four shots or less. It was a match where the margins were slim, but the American repeatedly made short exchanges of his territory.

There’s also the temptation to look at Alcaraz’s four-and-a-half-month absence to explain the rust defeat. That would be too simple. He looked good enough to reach the quarter finals. He fought from two sets to one loss. He found his level again in the fourth and then pushed Shelton to the limit.

But the layoffs mattered marginally. It was Alcaraz’s first tournament since April and, as he himself admitted, he started to feel physically tired after the third set. He still managed to summon enough to take the fourth and flip a coin on the fifth. The difference was that Shelton had a weapon that could decide the coin toss: his serve.

Calling it an important weapon in those moments, Alcaraz described the uncertainty of whether the next point would even begin or disappear behind an ace or unreturnable delivery. There was no apology in his voice. There was recognition. Shelton earned this advantage.

This made this defeat different from a match where Alcaraz simply played poorly. He was beaten by someone who was willing to play an equally dangerous game, someone who saw the biggest shots on the other side of the net and decided to swing harder. There were no safe passages in this match. No long stretches where one man could dictate while the other just absorbed.

There was Shelton’s serve, Alcaraz’s forehand, Shelton’s athleticism, Alcaraz’s recovery, the crowd roaring for points that seemed impossible to win, and the two players repeatedly asking their bodies for more speed.

The opening tiebreak rally captured everything. Recovery from a lunge. Sudden change of direction. Lob. Gasp from the commentary.

“It’s crazy. It’s incredible athleticism from both of those guys.

Four hours later, after the sweat, the mistakes, the nine-game Shelton wave, Alcaraz’s resurgence and a 146 mph final serve, the description still fit.

It was crazy. It was physical. It was a war.

– The end

Issued by:

Akshay Ramesh

Published on:

10 Sep 2026 08:01 IST