Alexander Zverev has advanced to the quarter-finals of the US Open after holding off a resurgent Jannik Sinner on a brutally humid Sunday night in New York.

Zverev kept his cool in the deciding set on Arthur Ashe Stadium to seal a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory and reach his 10th major quarter-final. The 12th seed was pushed all the way by Sinner, who had struggled physically in the second and third sets but came roaring back into contention with a valiant fourth-set showing.

Sinner began suffering with cramps in both legs during the second set and by midway through the third set his condition worsened to the point that Zverev approached him to check on his wellbeing. The Italian’s condition improved sufficiently in the fourth and fifth sets to ensure a pulsating climax for the Sunday night crowd, but Zverev outhit his opponent by 14 winners to seven in the final set to seal a hard-earned four-hour, 40-minute fourth-round triumph.

Late-night viewing in New York is out of this world 🙌@usopen | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/UmKhY79PWt

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Both players felt the effects of humid conditions. Sinner frequently towelled off after points and Zverev changed his shoes and socks early in the second set. In a dramatic fourth game of the second set, Sinner appeared to show discomfort with cramps in both his right and left legs but showed great resolve to save five break points to hold serve.

In the third set, after dropping serve to fall behind 2-4, Sinner appeared to cramp severely in both his left hamstring and quad and was limping so noticeably that Zverev checked on his condition.

The Italian received the second of two permitted treatments for cramps from ATP physio Clay Sniteman at the end of the third set and looked somewhat rejuvenated in the first game of the fourth, when he earned four break points before Zverev ultimately escaped the 20-point game with a 129 mph ace within moments of midnight and the three-hour mark of the match.

A resolute Sinner went on to claim the only break of serve of the fourth set in the ninth game as Zverev double faulted on break point, but the Italian was unable to maintain his momentum into the decider. Zverev expertly kept his composure, breaking in the second game and saving the only break point he faced on serve to improve to 42-20 for the 2023 season.

Zverev, the 2020 US Open finalist, claimed just his second victory over a Top 10 player in 15 meetings at the majors. He improved his Lexus ATP Head2Head record with Sinner to 4-1 and repeated his win over the Italian in the same round at Flushing Meadows in 2021, when he went on to reach the semi-finals.

It was the second heartbreaking late-night defeat in New York for Sinner in the space of a year. In 2022, the Italian completed a five-hour, 15-minute marathon quarter-final with Carlos Alcaraz that finished at 2:38 a.m. Sinner had held a match point but the Spaniard claimed the victory and went on to win his maiden major title.

The world saw firsthand the heartbreak Taylor Fritz experienced at last year’s US Open. The American No. 1 allowed Netflix’s cameras inside his circle throughout the process of his surprising defeat to World No. 303 Brandon Holt in the first round for the filming of Break Point.

Fritz’s coach, Michael Russell, helped explain what led to the upset and how Team Fritz has learned from the experience.

“There were a lot of different dynamics at play. I think Taylor was here too long prior to the tournament. Seven days of preparation sometimes can create a little bit of burnout leading up to it,” Russell told ATPTour.com. “And then he just put way too much expectation and pressure on himself. You’re always going to have that pressure as the No. 1 American coming into your home Slam, but he really felt like, basically, he should win the tournament coming in.

“You want to have that confidence and that belief, but at the same time, there are 128 guys. They have to win seven matches in order to win a tournament, and there are a lot of exceptional players in that field. So combine that with the fact that you’re playing a fellow American that you grew up with, who knows your game so well, all those pressures, and he just didn’t manage it as well as he could have.”

Russell clearly credited Holt, saying the Californian “played an exceptional match”. The former No. 60 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings tried to take positives from the experience and adapted Fritz’s preparation for this year’s US Open.

“This year, we arrived Tuesday evening, Taylor was able to go back to Miami, where he has a place, for four days, which just really helps mentally and emotionally get ready and just a little bit of a break after a four-week stretch of playing the US Open Series of hard-court tournaments,” Russell said. “Then we actually increased the volume in the three days of practice here to imitate a little more of that three-out-of-five-set match play. And then we shut it down Saturday before the tournament started.”

Fritz’s “extracurricular commitments” — media, for example — have been minimal and the full focus has been on his tennis.

“Not to say that he’s not doing any of those,” Russell said. “But it’s managed much better from a time perspective and I think that’s really helped him physically, mentally, and emotionally deal with the pressure that’s always going to be there.”

This year, Fritz went from an early New York exit to a dominant first-week performance. The home favourite lost a combined 13 games in his first three matches against Steve Johnson, Juan Pablo Varillas and Jakub Mensik, before also dismissing Dominic Stricker in straight sets.

“You’re always going to be nervous, it’s normal. It’s part of sport. When you walk into competition, there’s always that unpredictability of what’s going to happen, but at the same time, it’s having the confidence, it’s having the belief in yourself. And then also, the preparation creates that confidence,” Russell said. “This year, the preparation was better. Of course, we have a lot of talks about staying relaxed, about staying confident. It’s very cliche, but controlling the controllables.

“You can’t worry about what other things are happening with other players, what the points are, what the money is. Literally just focussing on the ball, focussing on the court. It’s the same ball, it’s the same court for everyone. The lines are the same dimensions everywhere you go.”

Fritz will try to keep that in mind when he steps onto the court inside Arthur Ashe Stadium on Tuesday for his quarter-final against 23-time major winner Novak Djokovic. The Serbian leads their Lexus ATP Head2Head 7-0.

“You can only control what you can do. So if your opponent is going for records or your opponent’s won this many tournaments and this many Slams, that’s great, that’s exceptional, and that’s for him,” Russell said. “But at the end of the day, tomorrow, when you guys both wake up, you’re walking out on that same court, and you’re trying to win the last point. So I think it’s ‘What can I do to win that last point? How do I make my opponent as uncomfortable as possible? How do I create that adversity?’

“For Taylor, that’s what the game plan is and what can he do game plan wise that can make Novak uncomfortable?”

The 2022 Nitto ATP Finals semi-finalist accomplished that against Djokovic in Turin last year. The eventual champion won in two tie-breaks, but Fritz served for the second set.

“That was some of the best tennis I’ve seen Taylor play and Novak was flustered,” Russell said. “I think if Taylor would have won that second set, it would have been a very interesting third set because that was some of the best tennis I’ve seen.”

Regardless of past results, Russell wants his charge to “play free” and “play relaxed” as he tries to make the US Open semi-finals for the first time.

“Enjoy it, get the crowd involved. The American crowd playing in the US Open, Ashe Stadium. No. 1 American against arguably the greatest player of all time,” Russell said. “I want you to enjoy the experience and look like you’re enjoying the experience. Go out and show a lot of positive emotion, a lot of spring in your step and just, take it all in and have fun.”

Daniil Medvedev on Monday became the third player to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, which will be held in Turin from 12-19 November. The 27-year-old joins Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic at the season finale.

Medvedev will compete in the year-end championships for the fifth consecutive year after defeating Alex de Minaur to make the US Open quarter-finals. He won the Nitto ATP Finals in 2020 and reached the final in 2021.

The five-time qualifier has earned his place at the Pala Alpitour with a consistent season during which he has lifted five ATP Tour trophies, including two ATP Masters 1000 triumphs.

From the start of Rotterdam in February, Medvedev won 26 of 27 matches. He earned crowns in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai. After losing to Carlos Alcaraz in the Indian Wells final, he emerged victorious in Miami.

The 27-year-old also enjoyed a breakthrough on clay. Medvedev went 10-3 on the surface and claimed his first title in Rome, where he lost just one set en route to the trophy.

According to Infosys ATP Stats, the former World No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings has won 53 matches this year, second on the ATP Tour behind only Alcaraz. It is the third time he has earned at least 50 tour-level victories in a season (2019, 2021).

Medvedev owns a 9-7 record at the Nitto ATP Finals.

Revenge tasted sweet for Daniil Medvedev on Monday evening at the US Open.

The third seed had lost two consecutive Lexus ATP Head2Head matches to 13th seed Alex de Minaur, including one last month in Toronto. But the 2021 US Open champion flipped the script inside Louis Armstrong Stadium, rallying for a 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 victory to reach the quarter-finals of the season’s final major.

The 27-year-old has now reached the last eight at Flushing Meadows in four of his past five appearances. Medvedev will try to make his fourth semi-final in New York when he plays close friend Andrey Rublev, against whom he has won five of seven tour-level clashes. 

With Medvedev’s victory, he also qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals for the fifth consecutive year.

De Minaur was in full control after the first set. Medvedev seemed to be out of sorts as he left the humid court to change and then received an inhaler from a tournament doctor. He had hit just three winners to 10 unforced errors in the opening set.

“Some people bear better with the heat, some people worse. I feel like I’m not the best one in this case. At the same time I feel like I fight many times through it quite well, so that’s kind of what happened today,” Medvedev said. “I managed to raise my level. It was an amazing last three sets, so really happy. Hope I can play the same way going further.”

But the entire tone of the match changed on a tweener early in the second set. The 20-time tour-level champion rarely uses the shot, but did so successfully and eventually won the point. From then on, Medvedev raised his level and the clash was no longer in De Minaur’s control. Instead of misfiring often, Medvedev became comfortable rallying with his gritty 24-year-old opponent.

“It’s very rare that I do a tweener and I make it in. Against [Sebastian] Baez I made one and I almost won the point,” Medvedev said. “I many times also don’t go for the tweener because usually you have the chance to make a lob and get back into the point or something like this. I’m not a huge fan of tweener, even if in practice I do it a little bit more for fun.

“Here I felt like it was a good opportunity to do it. I was a little bit late. I just went for it. To win it, the crowd cheers you on.”

De Minaur fought until the end as he always does. But once the Australian failed to convert a break point in his first return game of the fourth set, Medvedev, who often hung an ice towel over his head like a horseshoe during changeovers, surged to victory. The third seed broke serve in the next game and never relinquished his advantage.

Medvedev converted five of his 10 break points and won 41 per cent of his receiving points, consistently putting pressure on this year’s Acapulco champion. He now leads De Minaur 5-2 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head.

Ben Shelton rocks back and forth before he serves like a predator waiting for the perfect moment to attack. His right foot sits just a toothpick’s width from the baseline. What his opponent is doing to prepare 80 feet away often does not matter.

With his racquet-bearing left hand and ball-holding right hand clasped together, the Shelton machine moves into motion. Three things happen at once — the American calmly tosses the ball into the air, develops his left arm into a ready position with his elbow up and, perhaps most vitally, manouevres his left foot next to his right to build momentum, with both feet pivoting parallel to the baseline.

As the ball floats in the air, Shelton sits into a deep crouch and opens his shoulders, coiling in preparation for an eruption. Time stands still. Right as the ball hits its peak, Shelton soars upwards.

“It’s explosive,” said Scott Perelman, a longtime assistant coach at the University of Florida, where Shelton competed for two years. “It’s like a rocket shooting up off the ground.”

With both feet in the air, Shelton crushes the ball with devastating effect. Sometimes, he simply pulverises it. On many occasions, he imparts a variety of spin to manipulate the ball however he desires, to whichever target in the box he chooses. On Sunday against Tommy Paul in his fourth-round match, which he won in four sets, the 20-year-old hit two 149 mph serves in one game. The US Open record is 152 mph, struck in 2004 by former World No. 1 Andy Roddick, widely considered one of the best servers in history.

“I think [it was] straight adrenaline. Any other atmosphere, I don’t think I could get it done. I think my arm might fall off,” Shelton said in his on-court interview. “But it’s feeling pretty good right now.”

“I was besides myself. I’ve never seen that before. In my life. I’m going to be 68 next year,” Perelman said. “So I’ve been watching this game a long, long time. I’ve seen some of the best servers in the world. To see that back to back in the Ad court like that, I was just speechless.”

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^{Photo: Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour}
In isolation, those 149 mph serves only earned Shelton two points in the match. Ask Ben’s father, Bryan Shelton, or Perelman, and they will quickly explain they would rather him not chase speed. At 6’4”, the American does not have the height typically associated with big servers like John Isner, Ivo Karlovic and Reilly Opelka, but pound-for-pound, his serve is just as effective, with the ability to hit all areas of the service boxes with a variety of speeds and spins.

“He’s worked hard to get everything to be in sync like that. But when he’s got it going, as you can see, I don’t think that we’re out of line in saying if he doesn’t have the best serve in the game, it’s surely one of the best serves in the game,” Perelman said. “And he’s just finishing up year one [on Tour]. I still don’t think he’s totally grown into his body. I think he is still going to get stronger and a bit faster.”

Shelton leads the US Open with 62 aces and has hit by far the fastest serves. That is not bad for someone who did not fully commit to tennis until just before his teens.

Perelman became a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Florida when Shelton was nine years old. Ben’s father, former World No. 55 Bryan Shelton, was the head coach. The younger Shelton played football and baseball, not tennis.

“He actually swore to me at a younger age that he would never play tennis,” Perelman recalled, cracking a laugh.

“I remember vividly when he started playing, and it was because Bryan had come out with his daughter, Emma. And Bryan and Emma were working out in the early morning before school, and Ben in my opinion, after a bit, got a little jealous. And he said, ‘Hey, Dad, do you mind if I join in?’ And Bryan said, ‘Of course’, and that was the beginning of what you’re seeing today.”

 

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For years, Shelton was focussed on playing quarterback. It was not until he realised that with a world-class tennis coach and former pro as a father, turning his attention to tennis might be a good idea. But countless reps of throwing the football have seeped into Shelton’s tennis, especially his serve.

“Oh my gosh, there’s no doubt. There’s no doubt [it helped]. That’s probably the biggest reason,” Bryan Shelton told ATPTour.com last year. “Hopefully there’s something that we passed on as parents. But how you develop what gifts you have is really the key. Getting his elbow up and doing certain things with the football, and really trying to perfect that kind of allowed him to come into tennis and really develop that as a weapon, I think.

“I think that’s a big part of why he loves everything above his head, whether it’s an overhead or a serve. He’s pretty dynamic with that.”

Perelman added: “I think Ben has got a live arm. You see this guy throw a football and you’ll be amazed. The guy can probably throw that football 50, 60 yards in the air fairly easily. And then the other side of him is his athleticism, his explosiveness is just off the charts in a lot of ways.”

After his third-round win against Aslan Karatsev on Grandstand, Shelton threw a ball into the commentator’s box, a perfect strike to Christopher Eubanks, his close friend and Wimbledon quarter-finalist, who was calling the match. It was a throw that would have impressed NFL star Aaron Rodgers, who watched Shelton defeat Paul Sunday. “I was stunned,” Rodgers commented on Instagram of Shelton’s 149 mph serves. “Kid is special.”

The explosiveness Perelman was referring to is a sentiment echoed by United States Davis Cup captain and all-time doubles great Bob Bryan, one of the biggest lefty servers of his own generation.

“Ben gets some of the deepest knee bend and highest push off from the ground I’ve ever seen on a serve,” Bryan said. “Allowing him to create massive power and incredible shape.”

Perelman realised Shelton’s serve had the potential to be something special in the same moment he discovered the lefty had an athletic gift.

“I went and watched him play football when he was younger and I could tell early on that he was special,” Perelman said. “He played quarterback. He was by far not the biggest kid out there. But when he would get pummeled by the biggest kid out there, tackled, he’d just jump right up and run right back into the huddle.

“You can tell he had no fear as a youngster. He’s playing against guys twice his size. This is another one of his gifts. He embraces the moment of the challenge versus having any sort of hesitation or worry or concern about how big a stage it might be or how big a moment might be.”

That has become apparent on the world’s biggest stages. Against Paul, Shelton grasped the 23,000 fans in his hand and harnessed their energy when others would have felt nerves.

The story of Shelton’s development has been told often. He did not travel internationally as a junior because his father wanted him to first become the best in Florida and then in the United States.

In October 2021, well before turning professional, Shelton played an ITF World Tennis Tour event in Vero Beach, Florida, called the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships. Still seven months away from winning the NCAA Singles title, Shelton was already making an impression with his game, especially his serve.

“You’d hear this thunderous clap when it came off the racquet. And then half a second later, you heard another clap, when the ball hit the signage in the corner for our biggest sponsor,” said Randy Walker, the event’s tournament director. “We just started to laugh that the ball would perfectly hit that piece of signage, every time he hit a wide flat serve, whether it was an ace or if it was a fault that went by, just ‘Clank’, it hit that sponsor signage.”

During his second-round match, Shelton shattered the signage. Later in the week, he signed it for the sponsor, writing “My bad”.

“Before he was hitting 149-mile per hour bombs at Arthur Ashe Stadium,” Walker said. “He was hitting close to that ruining sponsor signage at a $15,000 Futures event in Vero Beach, Florida as a college sophomore.”

Shelton broke onto the ATP Tour scene last American summer after winning the NCAA Singles title. He stunned Casper Ruud in Cincinnati and shortly thereafter turned professional. Shelton reached the quarter-finals of this year’s Australian Open and by upsetting Paul, to whom he lost in Melbourne, became the youngest American man to make the US Open quarter-finals since Roddick in 2002. Between the two runs, he did not win multiple tour-level matches in a row, but he had not previously travelled outside the country or played on red clay or grass.

The scary part for the rest of the ATP Tour is that Shelton is still improving, both physically and in terms of his tennis skills. With his serve where it already is, the American is already capable of challenging any opponent on any given day.

“I’ve seen him do some leg workouts, working out with 4, 5, 600 pounds at times. This guy is a stallion. I told Bryan several years ago that coaching Ben was like riding Secretariat. And to this day, I absolutely believe it,” Perelman said. “He’s got maybe one of the greatest horses ever to run, period. That’s how I felt. I’ve watched this kid grow up. His competitive spirit is off the charts.

“I was with him every day when he was in college for two years, he did not lose a single race a single time for two straight years. The guy at 6 o’clock in the morning, he’s ready to go. 7 o’clock at night, he’s ready to go. He’s ready to go all the time. The guy has got a motor that just keeps beating and beating and beating and beating, and he loves it.”

In his first full season as a pro, Shelton entered the US Open eighth in first-serve points won according to Infosys ATP Stats. Paul tried throwing off Shelton with kindness inside Arthur Ashe Stadium, to no avail.

“You want to get them out of the rhythm but you don’t want to be disrespectful in any way. I try and be overly respectful,” Paul said. “Maybe it will get him out of his rhythm. Like on changeovers, ‘Dude, you’re serving great today’, that sort of thing. Hit him with a couple of those today but he had no reaction to it. It wasn’t really working.”

Feliciano Lopez, the recently retired Spaniard who has hit more aces than any other lefty in history (10,261), has been impressed by Shelton’s delivery.

“His serve is just so natural and effortless. I am sure he’s been practising his serve throughout his career, but I personally think that you have to be a bit gifted as well in order to have such a serve like he has,” Lopez said. “On top of that his power is massive and the speed he averages is probably the highest in the game. I do think that over the next few years his serve will be even more effective due to the experience he will gain.”

No matter what happens when Shelton plays countryman Frances Tiafoe Tuesday evening under the New York lights, the lefty has made it clear to everyone that backed by one of the best serves in the game, he is not going anywhere.

“He’s improving all the time, and you feel his passion and his love for the game,” Perelman said. “To me, that’s another sign that he didn’t start at two, three, four years old, and by 10 or 11, had already put in seven or eight years. So Benny is nowhere near burnt out. That fire is lit, and it’s lit at a very high level.”