Alcaraz Loses at 3:33 a.m. After Breaking His Own Record

Ben Shelton beat Carlos Alcaraz 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(10-7) at 3:33 a.m. in New York, the latest finish in US Open history. The defending champion had already lived this hour on Arthur Ashe, as the winner.

On the changeover after a 6-1 fourth set, Alcaraz appeared to vomit into a towel. He still took the fifth to a 10-point tiebreak, then walked off saying he was healthy.

Alcaraz Already Owned the 2:50 a.m. Record

The previous latest finish at the Open was 2:50 a.m. on September 8, 2022, when Alcaraz saved a match point and beat Jannik Sinner 6-3, 6-7(7), 6-7(0), 7-5, 6-3. That quarterfinal ran 5 hours and 15 minutes, and it broke a 2:26 a.m. mark that three older matches had shared.

This time he was on the other side of the clock. The 2026 quarterfinal ran 4 hours and 28 minutes and passed his own record while the fifth set was still on serve. He could not repeat the 2022 escape. Shelton held his nerve in the tiebreak and closed it at 3:33 a.m.

THE LATE CLOCK ON ASHE

1. September 4, 1993: Mats Wilander beats Mikael Pernfors at 2:26 a.m., one of three matches that later shared the old mark.
2. September 8, 2022: Alcaraz beats Sinner at 2:50 a.m., the record this stadium lived with for four years.
3. September 9, 2026: Shelton beats Alcaraz at 3:33 a.m., 43 minutes later than the Spaniard’s own standard.

Night tennis at the Open has been pushing toward dawn for years. The difference on this one is who carried the old record into the new one, and who left with the loss.

Five Breaks and a Tiebreak From 5-3 Down

Alcaraz took a tight first-set tiebreak 7-5 in points. Shelton’s answer was the next two sets. The American broke four times across the second and third, won the second 6-1, and took the third 6-3 after Alcaraz’s forehand leaked.

Even then the Spaniard produced the kind of retrieve that fills this building. Down 0-2, 40-ad in the third, he leapt to get a volley almost behind his back and hit a backhand pass that stood the crowd up. It did not stop the set walking away from him.

With the title defense one set from ending, he found the fourth. He broke twice, won it 6-1, and forced a fifth. On that changeover he turned from the court and appeared to be sick into the towel, trying to keep the cameras off his face, then went back out.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The towel: Alcaraz appeared to vomit into a towel on the break after the fourth set, then played all 12 games of the fifth and the match tiebreak.
• The clock: The match ended at 3:33 a.m., confirmed as the latest finish the Open has logged.
• The lead he held: He went up 5-3 in the first-to-10 tiebreak before Shelton took seven of the next nine points.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The medical cause: Alcaraz did not describe a diagnosis. He said he was tired after the third set, then felt better in the fifth.
• How often he was sick: Broadcast clips show the towel. They do not settle a count.

The fifth stayed on serve. Alcaraz had his only break point of the set in the fifth game and did not convert it. He saved three break points to hold for 4-4, then held again to force the tiebreak. At 5-5 the official account of the tournament posted that the points were level too.

140 points to 140 points.

Fifth set. pic.twitter.com/qFVVlL62ji

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 9, 2026

From 5-3 down in that tiebreak, Shelton won four of the last five points. Match point was an ace. He looked at his box, hugged Alcaraz at the net, roared at the people who had stayed, and did his telephone celebration toward soccer player Trinity Rodman in the players’ box.

Why the Quarterfinal Started After 11 p.m.

The night session on Ashe is billed for 7 p.m. This one did not get the quarterfinal on court until after 11 p.m., which is how a 4-hour, 28-minute match was still live at 3:33 a.m. The delay was not a surprise storm. It was the day session refusing to die.

THE PILE-UP ON ARTHUR ASHE

• Two long day matches: Aryna Sabalenka against Linda Noskova and Frances Tiafoe against Alex Michelsen both went to final-set tiebreaks on the same court.
• The 7 p.m. window: Tiafoe was still out there past the scheduled night start, with fans stacked outside waiting to enter.
• A five-set second match: Alcaraz and Shelton then walked into a best-of-five that needed every set.

The Open has been here before. Venus Williams and Sofia Kenin did not start their first-round night match until after midnight earlier in this same fortnight, and that one ended after 2 a.m. A quarterfinal with the defending champion in it sliding past 11 p.m. is the same machine, just with a heavier match on the back end.

The objection that matters is not that New York likes late tennis. It is that a men’s quarterfinal sold as a showcase is a poor advert for the sport when the first ball of that match is still in the hopper at 11 p.m. because the afternoon would not finish. The towel clip will move faster than that argument. The start time is still why the clip exists at 3 a.m. rather than 11.

The Wrist That Wiped Out Clay and Grass

Alcaraz arrived in New York for his first tournament after more than four months out. The layoff began with a right-wrist injury in Barcelona. He beat Otto Virtanen 6-4, 6-2 in the first round of the Barcelona Open on April 14, felt the wrist give way on a return, and withdrew the next day after tests showed the problem was more serious than the team had expected.

Madrid went. Rome went. He skipped the French Open defense, then Wimbledon, the Canadian Open, and Cincinnati. The hard-court major was the comeback, not a tune-up after a full summer.

Through four rounds he looked closer to the player who had just completed a Career Grand Slam in Melbourne than to a man short of matches. He dropped only one set, to Jaime Faria in the second round, and beat Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 to keep an 18-match Grand Slam winning streak alive, a personal best that ran through the 2025 US Open title and the 2026 Australian Open.

He was chasing an eighth major and trying to become the first man since Roger Federer in 2008 to defend this title. He had not played a five-setter since the wrist gave out. The first one he got started after 11 p.m. and asked him to find extra legs he had not had to use against Paul or Wu Yibing.

He said the physical dip came after the third set, which is also when a four-month hole in the calendar would be expected to show. He also said he felt better as the fifth wore on. The IBM sheet does not measure nausea. It does show a 23-year-old who struck 38 winners and still gave the night away with 53 unforced errors and 7 double faults.

An All-American Semifinal Is Booked for Friday

Shelton, the No. 8 seed, was 0-3 against Alcaraz and 0-17 against top-three players before this match. He is 23, the same age as the man he just beat, and he had never taken a match off a player of this rank. The win is his biggest by the live rankings, which now have him at No. 4, up five spots, with a chance to set a career high when the tournament is done.

He came in 13-2 on the North American hard-court swing after winning the Montreal Masters, and he is 38-13 for the season. Friday he plays 11th seed Frances Tiafoe, a friend, in an all-American semifinal. Shelton leads that head-to-head 3-1. Two of the four meetings have already been in this stadium, including a 2023 quarterfinal he won. One of them will be in the US Open final. The last American man to win a major was Andy Roddick, here, in 2003, 23 years ago. Shelton was not born then.

For me, it is always about the people in the crowd. Whether it is my coaches or my team over there, all my friends and family, or even the city of New York that showed up tonight till 3 a.m. With the USA chants until the very end by the crowd, that’s what got me the win tonight.

Ben Shelton, on-court interview, Arthur Ashe Stadium

He told reporters it was a war and the most enjoyable match of his career. He also said that after losing the first-set tiebreak he was angry, but that a break just before that tiebreak had already told him the return was there. Once he broke three times in the second set, he said, it was easier to swing. His father and coach, Bryan Shelton, sat in the box through the whole thing.

What the IBM Numbers Show After 4 Hours 28 Minutes

Alcaraz won the winners column and lost the match by five points. The official match statistics from Arthur Ashe make the trade obvious: he created more, and he gave more back, while Shelton’s first serve and his 16 break points did the heavy work.

THE QF ON PAPER

Shelton covered 271.9 meters more than the man returning from injury. Alcaraz was slightly better at net, 27 of 35 against 29 of 41, which fits a player trying to shorten points when the legs go. He could not get enough returns in play when the lefty serve went up in the tiebreak, and he said as much. The serve, he said, is a free point or a real point, and you do not know which until it is gone.

He remembered the last 10-point tiebreak he had played, in Paris last year, when he beat Sinner for the French Open. This one ran the other way. He led 5-3 and still lost 10-7.

Alcaraz Left the Court With a Smile

He came into the fortnight saying the job was to compete in matches like this and to be healthy. He left with a 26-4 record for 2026, still No. 3, still on track for a fifth straight ATP Finals, and without the 2,000 ranking points a defending champion has to put back. A quarterfinal is worth 400. The gap to No. 1 does not close on that math.

After the third set, physically I was really tired, but I found a way to push myself up and to physically give extra. In the fifth set I just started to feel better and better, but I was playing against one of the [best]. He is a beast. Shelton is an unbelievable player, powerful. He just managed to play really, really well in every situation, so credit to him. But I leave the court happy. I leave the court with a smile, healthy, and this is what I needed.

Carlos Alcaraz, press conference, US Open

He had told reporters he would leave the court with a smile, and he did. The building had watched him get sick in a towel, then play another set that ended after 3 a.m., then break the late-night record he set here at 19. Friday, Shelton and Tiafoe play for the final. The new mark on the Ashe clock is 3:33 a.m.