Men’s Championship Highlights: Alexander Zverev vs. Ben Shelton | 2026 US Open

Nobody has paid his dues more than Zverev. Diabetes is more than the other elite players had to overcome, plus the injury with Nadal.

Congrats Zverev on winning your second slam of the year! Most people thought that you’d never win a slam in your career, let alone two. Oh how sweet it must feel to prove both the doubters and haters wrong and watch them drown in their tears! I’m appalled that anybody, let alone a brilliant mind like Gill, actually thought Shelton stood a chance of winning. Many people were fooled by the illusion of the Alcaraz win. Beating a C level Carlos in a slam is not the same as getting it done against his normal level. Nadal in 2015 and Djokovic in 2017 and early 2018 were examples of that. At this point Zverev could be argued as a better player than Stan Wawrinka. Despite having a single slam deficit, Zverev has many more big titles(most notably 2 WTFs, 7 more masters and an Olympic gold in singles), light years better consistency in tournaments, being a top 5 player much longer and even has a shot at world number 1. It will be interesting to see if Zverev fares any better against Carlos from this point on.

Is this the first grand slam winner with a very delayed reaction after championship point? Zverev was too locked in and treated it like another game point. Congrats to AZ!