It’s Never Too Late For Tennis

The 2025 US Open final saw Alcaraz beat Sinner in four sets, the third straight major final the two faced each other in that season. As frequent rivals, a rematch between the two was the expectation heading into the 2026 US Open. But Alcaraz was out by the quarterfinals, and Sinner never even made the trip to Flushing Meadows. They were not the only big names missing; this was the first major since the 2003 French Open without a member of tennis’s big three (Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal) in the second round. Federer retired in 2022, Nadal in 2024, and Djokovic was eliminated in the first round by an unseeded player.

Sinner, the Italian ranked world No. 1, withdrew on August 21, nine days before the main draw, with a right knee injury that had kept him off the court since he won Wimbledon in July. Alcaraz, the Spanish defending champion, had been gone longer, as he missed both the French Open and Wimbledon after injuring his right wrist in his opening match at the Barcelona Open on April 14. He arrived in New York without having played a singles match since April. Alcaraz’s ranking had fallen to No. 3, and he entered the tournament as the second seed only because Sinner withdrew. 

Even so, Alcaraz set the bar high for himself going into the tournament. “You’re going to see Carlitos playing the way he always has,” he said before the tournament, and he stayed true to his word, dropping only a single set across his first four matches. Sinner’s withdrawal and the fact that Alcaraz was still recovering from his injury left room for lower-ranking players to dominate many rounds, all while leaving space for the favorites, with both finals being won by top-two seeds. Still, the brackets that produced these finals were another story entirely and were full of upsets and surprises. 

Fourth seed Novak Djokovic arrived in New York with 78 consecutive first-round wins at majors, the longest such streak in the Open Era in men’s or women’s tennis. He lost his opener to Argentina’s Mariano Navone, ranked No. 49, in a five-set match that ran four hours and 36 minutes, the longest opening match of Djokovic’s career at a major. It was his first first-round exit at a major since the 2006 Australian Open, and it was also Djokovic’s first time ever losing before the third round at the US Open.

Djokovic, 39, looked visibly unwell on the court and said afterward that he had been dealing with vomiting and cramping all season and that his back had given out during the match. “The back just gave up in the end,” he said. 

The quarterfinals brought more surprises. Three of the eight were settled by a final-set tiebreak, which majors play to 10 points rather than the usual seven. Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka withstood one against the reigning Wimbledon champion, Czechia’s Linda Nosková. Frances Tiafoe won after falling behind two sets to none against fellow American Alex Michelsen. The third was between Alcaraz and No. 8-seed Ben Shelton, an American who had lost all 17 of his previous matches against top-three opponents. The match lasted four hours and 28 minutes, ending at 3:33 a.m and breaking the tournament record of lasting until 2:50 a.m. that Alcaraz and Sinner set in their 2022 quarterfinal. 

It did not start until after 11:00 p.m. because all three of the matches that had happened earlier that day on Arthur Ashe Stadium, the main court for the tournament, went to a deciding set. In tennis, the server usually has the advantage, so winning a game on an opponent’s serve, known as a break, is often what determines who wins the set. Alcaraz and Shelton traded breaks in the first set, and Alcaraz won the tiebreak that followed. Shelton won the next two sets while dropping only four games, and Alcaraz leveled the match by taking the fourth 6-1. Neither player was broken in the fifth set. In the eighth game, Shelton had a golden opportunity to pull ahead until Alcaraz saved three points that would have given Shelton a break. In the 10-point tiebreak that followed, Alcaraz led 5-3 before Shelton rallied to win it, helped by two 146 m.p.h. aces, ending Alcaraz’s 18-match winning streak at majors. 

“It was close, it really was close,” Alcaraz said. He added that his goal going into the tournament was to compete in matches like that one and stay healthy: “I leave the court with a smile, healthy, and this is what I needed. Shelton played a very complete, mature match.” 

Shelton gave credit to the fans, some of whom stayed past 3:00 a.m. to chant “USA.” “For me, it is always about the people in the crowd,” Shelton said. 

Shelton then went on to defeat Tiafoe in an all-American semifinal to reach his first major final and became the second American man since Andy Roddick to play for the US Open title, and the first Black American man to reach the final since Arthur Ashe in 1972.  A win would have made him the first American man to win a major since Roddick at the 2003 US Open, and the first black man to win the US Open since Ashe in 1968.

While this was a first for Shelton, German Alexander Zverev was playing in his sixth major final, and this gap in experience showed early on. In the first set alone, Shelton made 11 unforced errors compared to Zverev’s three. Shelton was able to take the third set, but Zverev broke him to open the fourth and ended up winning the game on a 24-shot rally that ended when Shelton sent a backhand wide. Zverev never looked back, winning 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2, to clinch the win. Zverev has beaten Shelton in all six of the matches they’ve played against each other, with Shelton winning just two sets across all of them. 

The win made Zverev the first German man to win the US Open since Boris Becker in 1989, and it culminated an already dominant season for him. He won 25 of the 27 matches he played at majors this year, more than any other player. After a rocky start to the tournament, needing five sets to win each of his first two matches, Zverev was dominant throughout the rest of the tournament and won 13 sets in a row on his march to the final. 

Zverev’s success wasn’t exactly welcome at the US Open due to the domestic assault allegations that have followed him for much of his career. In 2020, his former partner Brenda Patea accused him of bodily harm during an argument in Berlin. For this, he paid 200,000 euros; however, the termination carried no finding or admission of guilt. Then, a separate investigation was done by the ATP into allegations by another partner, Olga Sharypova, which was closed in January 2023 with the organization citing insufficient evidence. 

The women’s tournament opened with the Williams sisters. Venus, 46, was in the singles draw on a wildcard and was the oldest woman in the field since Renee Richards in 1981. She lost to American Sofia Kenin in the first round. Serena, 44, turned down a singles wildcard and entered the mixed doubles with Alcaraz. Venus and Serena then played another wildcard in the women’s doubles and lost their opener to Maya Joint and Chan Hao-Ching in a tiebreak before losing the deciding one, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (7). Venus and Serena then skipped the post-match press conference, which the Grand Slam rulebook requires of players when the media requests it, but the USTA did not fine either sister. This decision led to criticism from fans who complained that the rule was enforced on everyone else.

The rest of the draw went largely to expectations, with all four top seeds reaching the semifinals. Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina secured the world No.1 ranking on September 9 after beating China’s Zheng Qinwen in the quarterfinals.  

“It’s just a number right now,” Rybakina said after clinching the ranking, showing she was focused squarely on winning a title. 

Rybakina did struggle early on in the semifinals against American Coco Gauff and even fell a set behind, but she ended up coming back and finished the series 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. In the final, Rybakina beat Sabalenka 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 and lost just three points on her own serve in the entire third set. It marked her 10th career win over a world No.1 and her sixth over Sabalenka. The loss ended Sabalenka's 20-match US Open winning streak and put an end to her attempt to become the first woman to win three consecutive titles at Flushing Meadows since Serena Williams in 2014. 

Sabalenka has been in the past four US Open finals consecutively and was seen smashing her racket after the final point. She was fined $7,500 for three code violations during the final including a warning for hitting the ball into the stands, an obscenity, and racket abuse. “It’s really tough to control your emotions when you lose in the final of a Grand Slam... I just wanted to let it go... I wanted all of that aggression and disappointment to go outside,” Sabalenka said. 

Off the court, late nights reignited a scheduling debate the US Open has had to contend with for years, with Venus’s match at 12:13 a.m. being the latest start on record along with many other games ran past 2 a.m. “I just don’t know any other sport where you have to start that late,” Venus said. 

Many were upset with the fact that the US Open hosts all of its quarterfinals on Arthur Ashe, whereas other majors like the French Open, Wimbledon, and Australian Open all split theirs between two courts. Tournament director Eric Butorac told ESPN that the rush-hour trip between Manhattan and Queens makes an earlier start difficult, though he did say staggering matches across courts was feasible and that they would revisit the start time in future editions. He called 7:00 p.m. the “right time” for now. 

The major season ended with the sport’s order unsettled. Rybakina claims the No. 1 ranking for the first time in her career and becomes the first Kazakh player to ever reach the summit. She only needs to win the French Open to complete a career Grand Slam. Zverev, who lost his first three major finals, won two major finals in a single year and looks to sustain this momentum in future majors. Whether 2026 will be seen as a detour or turning point for tennis will be answered in Melbourne in January.