Even as Ben Shelton’s forehand return sailed over the baseline, and the chair umpire announced “game, set, match,” Alexander Zverev walked over to the end of the court, tossed the ball back over the net, seeming to get ready to continue and watch.
Zverev had won the US Open . The only times Zverev actually faced Sinner or Alcaraz this year, he lost — five sets to Alcaraz in the Australian Open semifinal, four to Sinner in the Wimbledon final. The disbelief remained stark on his face, and lingered right through his speech to the crowd. And it genuinely has been that kind of stretch. Amid long-standing questions over whether he ever could, and with time seemingly running out, Zverev finally answered his critics with a maiden major at Roland Garros this summer, followed it with a run to the Wimbledon final, and capped it with this US Open haul. On paper, it’s a genuinely remarkable season. The world No.
Six years after his devastating loss in the final in New York, where he won the opening two sets and served at 5-3 in the third, the German wrapped up a three-hour-33-minute clash against Shelton to claim his second major title of 2026 with a 6-3, 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-2 victory. The numbers are staggering: a 25-2 record at the majors, at least the semifinals at every Slam this year — the only man to manage that in 2026, and the ninth to do it at all in the Open era. He’s also the seventh man in the Open era to clear 25 match wins at the majors in a single year, joining names like Djokovic, Federer, Nadal and Laver. In fact, five of his 13 losses this season came against Sinner alone: Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Madrid, and that Wimbledon final. His only other loss to a top-10 player all year came against Taylor Fritz in the Halle semifinal in June — a three-set defeat that arrived just days after he’d lifted his maiden major in Paris, a reminder that even in his best season, he’s found ways to lose outside the Sinner-Alcaraz bracket too. 2 brought his experience and big-serving game to the fore and was simply too composed, too precise — facing just a single break point in the entire final. Shelton did break him once, in the third set, perhaps stirring memories of 2020. But a more mature Zverev restored order in the fourth to seal his sixth straight win over the American without a loss, and his 13th set won in their last 14 played.
“We went 30 years without winning a Grand Slam title and now we won two in a span of three months,” Zverev said. Shelton, gracious afterward, put it plainly: “You’re one of the very best players in the world, maybe the best player in the world this year.”
