Alexander Zverev also takes New York. After the first Slam title won at Roland Garros, the German tennis player scored the first US Open of his career by beating Ben Shelton in the last act of the American tournament. In his third consecutive Major final, the 29-year-old from Hamburg erases the bad memories of 2020, when he surrendered to Dominic Thiem in five sets after serving for the match (5-3) in the decisive set. It is 6-3 7-6(2) 7-5 6-2, in three hours and 32 minutes of play, the score in favor of the German tennis player, who is the ninth player in the Open Era to be able to lift Roland Garros and US Open in the same season after names of the caliber of Rod Laver (1969), Guillermo Vilas (1977), Ivan Lendl (1986, 1987), Mats Wilander (1988), Andre Agassi (1999), Rafael Nadal (2010, 2013, 2017, 2019), Novak Djokovic (2023) and Carlos Alcaraz (2025).
Zverev also becomes the fourth German tennis player ever to triumph at Fluishing Meadows: before him Boris Becker (1989) and – for women – Steffi Graf (1988, 1989, 1993, 1995, 1996) and Angelique Kerber (2016) did so.
Disappointment instead for Ben Shelton, in the first Slam final of his career, who also played an incredible tournament: having eliminated the difficult Griekspoor, Hurkacz and Shapovalov, the American was the protagonist of the elimination of Alcaraz and the surprising Tiafoe.
Shelton lacked the decisive spark to bring a Major title back to the USA which has been missing since the 2003 US Open with Andy Roddick. Between forfeits and surprise eliminations, the ATP ranking and the Race towards the ATP Finals undergo several changes. Jannik Sinner remains world number one (11,500 points), but with a margin of less than 2000 points over Zverev (9690), who however takes first place in the Race: 8,650 against 7,950 points in favor of the German, who forcefully returns to the game for the race for number one in 2026. Alcaraz confirms himself third in the ATP rankings (5,560) with Shelton new number 4 in the world (4,680).
Felix Auger-Aliassime loses one position, fifth with 3,890, while Daniil Medvedev gains two, sixth with 3,770. Flavio Cobolli confirms himself in the top ten, seventh with 3,720 points, ahead of Frances Tiafoe, who enters the best ranking of number 8 in the world (3,380). Eight years after the last time, Novak Djokovic will exit the top ten and climb to 12th position (2,980). Lorenzo Musetti loses ground, slipping to the edge of the top 20 in 20th place with 2,255 points.