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Ben Shelton is 0-for-his career against Carlos Alcaraz, but there is a first time for everything and there may be no better time than now.
The quarterfinal between the big-serving Floridian and the defending champion Spaniard under the lights Tuesday night at Arthur Ashe is the U.S. Open’s biggest match so far, and the best chance it has for an American man to define himself as the favorite in a wide-open draw where these two players were two of three top 10 seeds to reach the final eight.
Shelton, who won the ATP Masters event in Toronto before the Open, practiced with Alcaraz in the lead-up to the tournament. He saw no rust in the 23-year-old, who took a four-month layoff to deal with a right wrist injury before returning to play here, missing Roland Garros, the entire grass-court season and the lead-up to the marquee event of the hard-court season.
No one who has watched Alcaraz dispatch his first four opponents here in New York while losing just one set of 13 would disagree with Shelton’s assessment.
“I’ve been watching his matches. I think he’s been playing at an extremely high level,” Shelton told a news conference late Sunday evening. “To me he looks very normal. His normal, I mean.”
Which is to say, he looks like the best player on the planet, on a surface where he has won three of his seven major titles.
Shelton, who would equal his best ever result at both a major and the U.S. Open by making the semifinal with a win Tuesday, took a set off Alcaraz the last time the two met, a 2025 Round of 16 defeat at Roland Garros. In their other two meetings, both on hard courts, Alcaraz beat Shelton in straight sets.
“I thought I played a good match in Paris but I think I’m serving better, returning much better [now],” Shelton said. “I think my shot tolerance from the baseline, overall quality from the baseline and my movement have improved. I think that it’s definitely going to be a different match playing here.”
For all the obvious focus on Shelton’s serve — he’s won 88 percent of service games in the tournament and has broken 150 mph while regularly living in the 120s — his chances of beating Alcaraz will likely come down to the pieces of his game that are more variable.
Alcaraz has been broken just six times in the tournament, fewer than Shelton, while winning 46 percent of opposing service games. An American with a terrific serve who can’t figure out an alternative path to victory is a familiar story — think Andy Roddick at the 2009 Wimbledon final, or just about any high-end opponent John Isner ever faced — and one that Shelton will be at pains to avoid repeating Tuesday.
Shelton’s return game, and his ability to take points from the baseline, has been at a good level this tournament. But Alcaraz’s default is to be at a great level, in every area of the game.
Shelton has never beaten a top five player at a major. He has just two top 10 wins this year, both against Taylor Fritz. To find a result in Shelton’s career that would rank similarly to this, you’d have to stretch back to an October 2023 win in Shanghai over Jannik Sinner, or an August 2022 win over Casper Ruud in Cincinnati, a tournament Shelton entered as a wild card.
Neither of those was a major, under the lights, with the biggest tennis stadium in the world behind him.
“Really powerful player,” Alcaraz said. “I think he uses the crowd, the people behind him. Especially when he’s playing here at home.”
English (US)