Not much longer now. The players have gone through their warm-up. We should be under way any moment now with Shelton set to serve first.
Here is probably the clearest measure of the task facing Shelton tonight: he is 0-17 against top-three opponents. His overall record against the top five is 4-21, with wins over Casper Ruud, Jannik Sinner, Daniil Medvedev and Taylor Fritz – but never anyone ranked in the top three. Alcaraz, currently world No 3, would therefore represent the biggest win of his career.
What’s more, Alcaraz has never lost to an American at a grand slam: 13 wins from 13 matches. That includes his five-set victories over Frances Tiafoe at this tournament in 2022 and Wimbledon two years later, as well as his four-set win over Shelton at Roland Garros last year.
Jessica Pegula has just finished off Emma Navarro 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to reach the US Open semi-finals. The No 3 seed advances to a hotly anticipated showdown with top seed Aryna Sabalenka on Thursday night. That means we should see Shelton and Alcaraz on court shortly after 11pm local time.
Good evening from Arthur Ashe Stadium, where Carlos Alcaraz and Ben Shelton are set to close out Tuesday’s US Open night session with a peach of a quarter-final.
Alcaraz is the defending champion, the No 2 seed and increasingly looks as though his four-and-a-half-month absence with a wrist injury never happened. He enters tonight on an 18-match winning streak at grand-slam level, having won last year’s US Open and this year’s Australian Open, and is now an eye-popping 31-1 at the majors since the start of the 2025 French Open.
The numbers in New York are similarly formidable. Alcaraz owns a 28-3 career record at the US Open, a .903 winning percentage that is the best by any man in the Open era, better than Pete Sampras, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. He has reached at least the quarter-finals in five of his six appearances here, winning the title in 2022 and again last year.
But Shelton is no doormat. The 23-year-old American is 12-2 on hard courts this summer and won his second Masters 1000 title last month in Montreal without dropping a set. He has already taken out Hubert Hurkacz, Denis Shapovalov and Stefanos Tsitsipas during this run, brushing aside the latter in straight sets on Sunday to reach his third major quarter-final.
There is one glaring hole on Shelton’s résumé. He is 0-17 against top-three opponents and has lost all three previous meetings with Alcaraz. Their most recent encounter, at Roland Garros last year, was at least competitive: the Spaniard won 7-6 (8), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
And tonight the American has something those previous meetings lacked: Arthur Ashe Stadium in full throat. Shelton first announced himself here with his semi-final run three years ago and will be trying to become only the second American man in the past 20 years to beat a top-three opponent at the US Open.
Frances Tiafoe is already waiting in the last four on Friday after his extraordinary comeback against Alex Michelsen earlier today. Will it be two US players in a row on Alcaraz’s second-week menu, or will Shelton ensure an all-American semi-final in the bottom half of the draw?
Jessica Pegula and Emma Navarro are currently late in the third set of their quarter-final match on Ashe. Once they finish it should be about 20 minutes before Shelton and Alcaraz take the court.
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s his report from Frances Tiafoe’s epic comeback earlier today at Flushing Meadows.
