A war over 5 sets: How Ben Shelton brought down Carlos Alcaraz at US Open

Ben Shelton refused to be intimidated by Carlos Alcaraz's power, matching him shot for shot in a four-hour US Open epic. His booming serve and nerve finally carried him through a dramatic fifth-set tiebreak.Ben Shelton defeated Carlos Alcaraz in a five-set quarterfinal at US Open (Reuters Photos)“That is insane. It’s incredible athleticism from both these guys.”The words came from the commentary box, almost before the crowd had time to process what it had just seen.Carlos Alcaraz had sent Ben Shelton scurrying to his left with a pass that seemed certain to end the point. Shelton lunged to his left, somehow got his racket to the ball, then spun around and raced back towards the middle of the court. In the space of a few frantic heartbeats, he had gone from stretching desperately to one side to finding his balance again, lifting a lob over Alcaraz with enough height and time to keep the point alive.Arthur Ashe Stadium erupted. This was only the first-set tiebreak. There were still hours to go. But the point felt like a warning of what was coming. Speed. Power. Instinct. Two athletes refusing to surrender a ball, even when the point appeared to have slipped beyond reach. For the next three hours and a few minutes, there were variations on that same theme.Shelton would eventually call it a war. “I’m tired,” he said after the four-hour-and-28-minute contest.“That was a war, epic match. I mean, so physical.”He had just spent a little over four hours trying to knock the defending champion out of the US Open, and had finally done it with a 146 mph ace at 3:33 in the morning.This was not Sinner versus Alcaraz, where two extraordinary athletes can spend a match changing rhythms, manipulating angles and trying to pull each other into unfamiliar territory. This was something more direct. More visceral. It was aggression from either side of the net.Shelton did not look at Alcaraz’s power and decide he needed to find another way around it. He met it. He returned it. He tried to hit through it. Alcaraz, when he was at his best, did exactly the same. Power met power, and the Arthur Ashe crowd loved every second of it.Shelton’s serve gave the match its thunder.The American left-hander repeatedly pushed towards the 150 mph mark, topping out at 149 mph. Fifty-four of his 156 serves went unreturned. He won 70 percent of his first-serve points and 57 percent behind his second serve. Even when Alcaraz knew what was coming, there were moments when knowing was not enough.There were the 145 mph bombs. The 148 mph ace down the middle. The 146 mph missile that finally ended the match. But the serve alone does not explain what happened.Shelton had to be willing to play after the serve. That was perhaps the most impressive part of the night. He did not panic when Alcaraz got his racket on the ball. He stayed in exchanges. He attacked the shorter ones. He trusted his forehand. He came forward behind the serve and won eight of nine points at the net in the opening set.And then there was Alcaraz, doing what Alcaraz does.The first set was a warning that this was going to be decided by the smallest of margins. Shelton led 5-3 in the tiebreak and was two points from taking the set. Alcaraz responded by winning four points in a row. Even in that frantic sequence, Shelton produced that extraordinary recovery, stretching for the pass, spinning around, somehow finding the lob. He lost the set anyway.For most players, that might have been the moment when the match began to drift away. For Shelton, it was the beginning of his best stretch.SEIZING THE MOMENT Ben Shelton and Carlos Alcaraz (Reuters Photo) Something changed in the second set. The American’s return became more aggressive. Alcaraz’s first-serve percentage dropped sharply, from 65 percent in the opening set to 50 percent in the second. Shelton sensed the opening and went after it.The errors started arriving from the other side.Alcaraz had looked so comfortable through his first four matches of the tournament, his return from a four-and-a-half-month layoff appearing almost seamless. He had not played competitively since April because of a right wrist injury. Until Shelton arrived, there had been little evidence that the long absence had taken anything away from him.But this was a different examination.Against Shelton’s pace, Alcaraz’s timing occasionally looked half a beat late. The forehand that usually finds the corner found the net. The ball that normally comes back with depth sometimes floated short. The frustration grew. By the end of the second set, Alcaraz had committed 32 unforced errors to Shelton’s 13. Shelton had taken the set 6-1.Then came another.He won nine games in a row across the second and third sets, turning a match that Alcaraz had seemed to have under control into something approaching a rout. Shelton raced to a 3-0 lead in the third and kept asking the same question: could Alcaraz live with this level of pace?For a while, the answer appeared to be no. That was the remarkable thing about Shelton’s performance. He was not waiting for Alcaraz to self-destruct. He was forcing him to operate at a speed and intensity that left very little room for error.Alcaraz eventually found that room, like he always has done in his nascent, yet remarkable career. The fourth set was his answer.He broke Shelton early, began taking the ball with renewed conviction and pushed the American back towards the baseline. The player who had looked frustrated and physically drained suddenly looked like the seven-time Grand Slam champion he is. Shelton’s advantage disappeared almost as quickly as it had arrived.Alcaraz won the fourth 6-1.HOLDING SERVES AND NERVESThe war had one final chapter left.The fifth set became more about nerve. Neither man could break. Shelton came within touching distance at 4-4, creating break points, but Alcaraz escaped. The American’s serve, which had carried him through so much of the night, held firm when the pressure was greatest. It was almost fitting that the match should end in a tiebreak. The crowd, despite knowing office time was only a couple of hours away, was ready for it, fastened its seatbelts.Shelton went ahead 3-1, taking an early mini-break. Alcaraz, refusing to go quietly, turned it around and led 5-3. At 6-6, the match had become almost entirely about who could withstand one more punch. Shelton landed it. He moved ahead 8-6, then struck the decisive blow two points later. A 146 mph serve. Alcaraz could not handle it.Game. Set. Match.Shelton had survived the comeback, the pressure, the late hour and the defending champion’s refusal to disappear.The numbers told part of the story. Shelton hit 34 winners and Alcaraz 38. Alcaraz actually controlled the longer rallies. But Shelton made only 35 unforced errors to Alcaraz’s 53 and won 55 percent of the rallies lasting four shots or fewer. It was a match where the margins were tiny, but the American repeatedly made short exchanges his territory.There is also a temptation to look at Alcaraz’s four-and-a-half-month absence and explain the defeat through rust. That would be too simple. He had looked good enough to reach the quarter-finals. He fought back from two sets to one down. He found his level again in the fourth and then pushed Shelton all the way in the decider.But the layoff mattered in the margins. This was Alcaraz’s first tournament since April, and by his own admission he had begun feeling physically tired after the third set. He still managed to summon enough to take the fourth and make the fifth a coin toss. The difference was that Shelton had the weapon that could decide a coin toss: his serve.Alcaraz called it an important weapon in those moments, describing the uncertainty of whether the next point would even begin or disappear behind an ace or unreturnable delivery. There was no excuse in his voice. There was recognition. Shelton had earned that advantage.That is what made this defeat different from a match where Alcaraz simply played badly. He was beaten by someone willing to play the same dangerous game, someone who saw the biggest shots on the other side of the net and decided to swing harder. There were no safe passages in this match. No long stretches where one man could dictate while the other merely absorbed.There was Shelton’s serve, Alcaraz’s forehand, Shelton’s athleticism, Alcaraz’s recovery, the crowd roaring after points that seemed impossible to win, and two players repeatedly asking their bodies for one more burst of speed.The opening tiebreak rally had captured it all. The lunging recovery. The sudden change of direction. The lob. The gasp from the commentary box.“That is insane. It’s incredible athleticism from both these guys.”Four hours later, after the sweat, the mistakes, the nine-game Shelton surge, the Alcaraz revival and the final 146 mph serve, the description still fitted.It was insane. It was physical. It was a war.- EndsPublished By: Akshay RameshPublished On: Sep 10, 2026 08:01 IST