Alexander Zverev captured the 2026 US Open men’s singles title on Sunday, defeating American Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-2 in a four-set final at Arthur Ashe Stadium that lasted three hours and 33 minutes. The top-seeded German added the Flushing Meadows trophy to the French Open crown he won earlier this year, becoming just the fourth man in the Open Era to claim his first two Grand Slam titles in the same season.
Zverev, 29, took control from the opening game by breaking Shelton’s serve and then dictated play with a reliable first serve and steady baseline game. He closed the second set with a dominant tiebreak and, after Shelton rallied to take the third set in front of a partisan New York crowd hoping to end a 23-year American men’s Grand Slam drought, immediately broke again at the start of the fourth and never looked back. He finished the match so composed that he initially did not realize he had won championship point on an unreturned serve.
The victory marked Zverev’s first title at the US Open after he had lost the 2020 final from two sets up. It also kept Andy Roddick as the last American man to win a major, a drought that now stretches back to 2003. Shelton, the eighth seed playing in his first Grand Slam final, produced flashes of his powerful serve and forehand but could not consistently disrupt Zverev, who improved to 6-0 in their head-to-head and 25-2 in major matches this season. Zverev earned $5.5 million for the title.
In his on-court remarks Zverev thanked his team and reflected on the long wait for a major, noting that after 30 years without a Grand Slam for his group they had now won two in three months. The result cements a breakthrough year for the German, who also reached the Wimbledon final, and leaves him well positioned in the race for year-end No. 1.