Carlos Alcaraz suffered a quarter-final exit at the 2026 US Open after losing to Ben Shelton in a five-set thriller that finished at 3.33am local time. The defeat ended the Spaniard’s 18-match Grand Slam winning streak and his hopes of winning a third US Open title.
“Of course you have some minor regrets where you’re like, I wish I could play that shot again, or I wish I could play that match again. And neither did anyone else successfully defend the US Open title after him. One possible explanation is the tournament’s position on the calendar. The US Open arrives at the end of a demanding summer stretch, following two Grand Slam tournaments played on drastically different surfaces and conditions, with less than a month between the French Open and Wimbledon. By the time players reach New York, fatigue and injuries can become significant factors. Sinner, for example, missed this year’s tournament with a knee problem, while Alcaraz arrived after a five-month lay-off.
The last man to successfully defend the US Open title was Roger Federer, who beat Andy Murray in the 2008 final. It was Federer’s fifth consecutive championship at Flushing Meadows, having also lifted the trophy in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. Federer never won the tournament again, reaching only one more final, in 2015, when he lost to Novak Djokovic in four sets.
Because they broke my streak of five in a row,” Federer told Forbes late last month after returning to New York for his long-awaited farewell ceremony, two of them are actually linked to the US Open and to Wimbledon,.
“The season is long.
I think all the guys who performed well in the preparation tournaments have it more difficult here,” Alexander Blockx, who has reached the quarter-finals, said.
