Mumbai: We’re into the seventh game of the fifth set, right after the two players have split the 280 points exactly between them over nearly 200 minutes of tennis until then.
Ben Shelton’s serve is feeling the heat at 0-30. Carlos Alcaraz steps up to the baseline for a second serve, only for his attacking mindset to meet a netted return execution. Another Shelton second serve comes up. This time, Alcaraz goes way back. Shelton sees it, and springs in for a serve-and-volley that presses Alcaraz to net a return again.
This was a classic cat-and-mouse game. Except, this was played out by two beasts stretching their physical limits while going toe-to-toe for four hours and 28 minutes in the latest finish ever at the US Open.
At long last, at 3.33am in New York, Shelton pushed his tongue out after pummelling a 146mph ace on match point to close the 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(10-7) classic and unlock a semi-final spot.
Alcaraz, the defending champion, simply smiled — while walking up to the net, giving a long hug to Shelton, and inside the tunnel after leaving the court. What else could he do? This was a guy who hadn’t played competitive tennis in four months giving us another five-set blockbuster as if he’d never left.
Just that the guy across the net remained ice-cool in the mind in pressure moments, red-hot with the serves on clutch points and rock-solid with his overall play to pull off his career’s biggest victory.
The 23-year-old American hadn’t beaten a top-three player in 17 attempts. He hadn’t beaten the world No.3 in their three previous clashes. Odds were stacked against him until, on Tuesday night leading into Wednesday morning with the home crowd chanting “USA, USA” till the end, Shelton flipped it dramatically.
“That’s what kept me going, and that’s what got me this win,” said Shelton on court, acknowledging the fans that had stayed back.
The big-serving southpaw took 1% more points on the first serve than Alcaraz (70% compared to 69%), converted two more break chances (5/16 to 3/11), produced four fewer winners (34 to 38) and won five more points (169 to 164) at the end of it all. It was that close.
What wasn’t, was the error count. Alcaraz littered 53 unforced errors (to Shelton’s 35) and seven double faults, a clear first sign through the past week that the 23-year-old Spaniard had been away since April due to his injured wrist.
Ahead of their showdown, Shelton reckoned the version of Alcaraz that had turned up at this US Open was normal. It isn’t normal, though, to be playing this good after being out for that long. Or to be throwing up in the towel ahead of the deciding set and springing back for long rallies in it. Or to brush aside a four-month layoff and battle hard for more than four hours.
The quarter-final began past 11pm because two of the three earlier matches had gone to match tiebreaks, including the comeback win of Frances Tiafoe, Shelton’s next opponent, that guarantees an American finalist.
It was a delayed start alright, but by no means a drab one. Alcaraz tried different return positions from the get-go, and asked questions of Shelton’s serve that was just about holding on. It couldn’t in the 11th game where Alcaraz got the break (to love, no less) that was coming. What many didn’t see coming, however, was a loose game from Alcaraz while serving for the set. The Spaniard’s forehands went missing early in the tiebreaker too, until he found it just in time with two sumptuous winners from 4-5 down to earn a set point. Which he took despite Shelton pulling off a tweener.
That summed it up: Shelton tried everything in a solid set and yet lost it. Alcaraz, dropping, volleying, lobbing but still looking a bit shaky, held his ground.
Not in the next two sets, which had Shelton written all over it while Alcaraz’s frequent smiles, and serving efficiency, disappeared. The American gobbled up nine straight games through the sets, including four straight breaks of the Spaniard’s serve that had been the weakest link in his comeback trail.
Early in the fourth set, Alcaraz looked at his box with a hint of frustration. Two points later, after a crisp volley crouching at the net, his body language lifted. As did his right fist, when he broke Shelton to go 2-0 up. Alcaraz was switched on again as Shelton, who went off the boil a bit, was broken again in the sixth game.
Let’s go, yelled Alcaraz. And off they went into the deciding set. And, 12 games later, into the 10-point shootoff.
A misfired Alcaraz forehand gave his opponent the first mini-break, until Shelton’s backhand mistakes wiped it off for 3-3. A fine second serve return put Alcaraz 5-3 up, until his forehand error made it 5-5. A booming unreturned serve put Shelton ahead 7-6 and soon, the most significant ace put him across the line.
