At the US Open, one of the hard-court Grand Slam tournaments, defending champion Carlos Alcaraz of Spain suffered a shocking quarterfinal defeat to Ben Shelton of the United States on Wednesday.
World No. 9 Shelton battled hard over five sets to defeat the No. 3-ranked Alcaraz 6-7 (5/7), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (10/7). The match lasted 4 hours and 28 minutes.
In this match, in the deciding set, Shelton, who was initially trailing 3/5, made a remarkable comeback and won the match 10/7 on points. This victory against the world No. 2 player was the biggest win of Shelton’s career. Facing Alcaraz for the fourth time, Shelton has recorded his first victory.
In this match, the support from the fans for the home player Shelton was tremendous. This quarterfinal victory against Alcaraz is expected to give Shelton a good boost in the rankings.
This was Alcaraz’s first match back on court after four months due to a wrist injury. Sinner, who was expected to challenge him, was unable to take part in this match because of injury, so there was an expectation that Alcaraz would retain the title. Shelton has broken that expectation.
Next, Shelton will face his friend and fellow American Frances Tiafoe in the semifinals.
World No. 11 Frances Tiafoe of the United States defeated fellow American Alex Michelsen in a five-set battle, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (10/8). This was the third meeting between the two, and Tiafoe recorded a hat-trick of victories.
Tiafoe, who lost the first two sets in this match, was also trailing 4-5 in the third set. On Michelsen’s serve for match point, he committed two double faults. That worked in Tiafoe’s favor, and from there he made a superb comeback, winning the next two sets as well as the decider to pull off an impressive victory.
The match lasted 4 hours and 38 minutes. Michelsen, who had won all his rounds in straight sets up to the quarterfinals, missed that chance in this match because of a double fault. Even though he took the lead several times after the third set, he was unable to capitalize on it.
Diafo, who has advanced to the semifinals at the US Open for the third time, is set to break into the top 10 in the world rankings.
3.33’
The Alcaraz-Shelton match, which ended at 3:33 a.m., is the latest-finishing match in US Open history. Before this, the latest match had been the 2022 quarterfinal in which Alcaraz defeated Italy’s Jannik Sinner, which lasted until 2:50 a.m.
Sabalenka, Pegula in the semifinals: In the women’s singles quarterfinals, world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus defeated 6th-ranked Linda Nosková of the Czech Republic in sets of 7-6 (7/1), 3-6, 7-6 (10/7). Sabalenka, who trailed 2-4 in the deciding set of this match, then made a strong comeback to win.
Having met for the third time, Sabalenka has won all three encounters.
With this, Sabalenka has advanced to the semifinals of the US Open for the sixth consecutive time. In the semifinals, she will face Jessica Pegula of the United States.
Pegula, who is ranked third in the world, defeated fellow American Emma Navarro, ranked 26th, in three sets, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. This was their fifth meeting, and Pegula has won all of them.
Trailing 2-4 in the deciding set of this match, Pegula came back from behind to win. Pegula has reached the US Open semifinals for the third consecutive time.
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This was her first win in a three-set match in the current Grand Slam season. She had lost in matches that went to a decider against Rybakina at the Australian Open and against Diana Schneider at the French Open.
