Alexander Zverev capped off an excellent Grand Slam season by beating Ben Shelton in four sets to win the 2026 US Open and claim his second major title in the space of three months.

It wasn’t the most spectacular final, but it was a very Zverev performance. He served extremely well, absorbed Shelton’s pace, dominated the longer exchanges and, aside from one poor service game at the end of the third set, never really looked like he was losing control.

Shelton did well to force a fourth after falling two sets behind, and the crowd briefly came alive when he broke at 6-5 in the third, but Zverev responded immediately by breaking at the start of the fourth and never gave him another route back into the match.

The win also marks a major transformation for Zverev at Grand Slam level. After years of near misses and three lost major finals, he has now won Roland Garros and the US Open in the same season and looks far more comfortable when these matches reach the business end.

Here’s how the final played out.

US Open 2026 Final Result

Alexander Zverev [1] def. Ben Shelton [8] 6-3, 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-2

Alexander Zverev completed what has been an excellent Grand Slam season by beating Ben Shelton in four sets to win his second major title of the year.

Given the head-to-head was 5-0 coming in and Zverev generally handles left-handers extremely well, I thought this was always going to be a difficult matchup for Shelton. That proved true pretty quickly.

Shelton’s usual first-strike tennis wasn’t doing enough damage. Zverev absorbed the pace, defended extremely well and repeatedly forced the American to hit one or two extra balls, which is where the errors started arriving.

The opening set was fairly straightforward. Shelton double-faulted on both break points he faced, and Zverev was almost untouchable behind his first serve.

He won 85% of first-serve points across the match, and that was probably the biggest reason Shelton never really established himself on return.

The second set was tighter, mainly because Shelton started coming forward more and was doing a better job of shortening points, but he was constantly under more pressure in his service games.

He did well to escape at 4-5 and 5-6, only for Zverev to completely run away with the tiebreak.

The German won the first five points, and once he was two sets ahead, it felt like Shelton needed something fairly dramatic to change the match.

To his credit, he raised his level as Zverev’s energy seemed to drop a touch.

Shelton started winning more scrappy points in the third, mixed in a few excellent lobs, and finally began making Zverev work harder on serve.

Even then, Zverev saved Shelton’s first break point of the match with a backhand winner and looked like he might drag the set into another tiebreak.

But serving at 5-6, he played his worst game of the final, gave Shelton three break points and lost the set when he missed a forehand volley.

That got the crowd involved and briefly made things interesting, but one of the biggest differences between this version of Zverev is what happened next.

There was no sulking, no passive spell and no panic. He immediately broke Shelton in the opening game of the fourth, re-established control of the baseline and basically killed the comeback before it had time to get going.

Zverev lost only four points on serve in the entire fourth set and won 12 of the final 14 points to finish it off. In fact, he was so locked in that he didn’t even realise the match was over.

In that moment, I was in the zone a lot. I didn’t hear noise at all. I was in this kind of tunnel where I just didn’t hear anything. Also, when the crowd is loud, it’s impossible to hear the umpire, so I didn’t hear that she said, ‘Game, set, match’. At the end of the day, I just forgot the score. I just thought it was 5-1 instead of 6-2.Alexander Zverev

For years, the comment section here has often said Zverev was likely to be the best player ever not to win a Slam, and he has looked weighed down by the question of whether he would ever get over the line.

The 2020 US Open final against Dominic Thiem was the obvious scar, as that match was so winnable, and he then lost two more Slam finals before finally breaking through in Paris. Since then he looks far more comfortable in these situations.

I think the scars of the 2020 final, they kind of disappeared after I won in Paris. Whereas before winning in Paris, I felt a lot of stress all the time, because there was always a question mark: ‘Will I ever win one?’ What I think now is just more of a joy to play those kinds of finals.Alexander Zverev

Even after dropping the third, he immediately reset rather than disappearing into himself, and his level in the fourth was probably the most impressive part of the match.

While not a spectacular final in terms of level or drama, he hit 35 winners, only 31 unforced errors, 24 of 28 at the net, and just one break of serve conceded all afternoon.

Shelton actually hit more winners, 47, but he also made 47 unforced errors and never got anywhere near enough traction on the Zverev serve.

Still a decent step forward for him, beating Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-final, backing it up against Tiafoe and reaching his first Grand Slam final at 23.

I struggle to enjoy all the ear cupping to get the crowd involved and some of the behaviour on court, but he also looks like a much more complete player than the version who first broke through, as his backhand has improved; it’s just that Zverev is a tough matchup for him.

Usually Sascha’s weakness is rolling in his forehand, but that actually works well against Shelton, who can’t really hurt him with his backhand off those slower, loopier balls. And then on the other wing, his forehand goes straight into Zverev’s best shot – his backhand.

It’s just not a typical pattern of play he will come across that often, and it could easily be one of those H2H’s he never gets a foothold in.

I definitely didn’t execute from the ground the way I wanted to. As the match went on, I wouldn’t ask myself anything more out of my backhand side, but I didn’t hit my forehand well today. I wasn’t accurate with it when I attacked with it. I made too many errors when I had the ball there on my strings.Ben Shelton

As for Zverev, two majors in the space of three months completely change the picture, and it’s not unthinkable that he ends the season as World Number One if results go his way and Sinner misses some more events.

Match Stats

Highlights

Shelton Press Conference

Zverev Press Conference

Soon.