“I hate talking about this. I hate that players have to talk about this. I hate that John McEnroe has to talk about this. They ask me all the time, as if I enjoy it. I don’t pop champagne every time another season ends. There’s probably no one who wants this streak to end more than I do.” Andy Roddick, now a successful podcaster, has been trying for years to shake off a statistic that has become a national curse. Since he won the 2003 US Open against Juan Carlos Ferrero, no American has lifted a Grand Slam again. And with each passing year, the burden grows heavier.
The United States has regained strength. It has six players among the top spots in the ATP rankings, a generation that has restored hope, and a new school that works—with the Spaniard José Higueras as one of its promoters. But the title still hasn’t arrived. Neither with the comings and goings of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, nor with a generation that seemed ready to finally break the curse. This 2026 won’t be the year either. Two years later, the United States again placed one of its own in the US Open final and, two years later, lost it again. This time it was Ben Shelton, defeated by Alexander Zverev 6-3, 7-6(2), 5-7, and 6-2, in three hours and 33 minutes of play.
At 23 years old, with power and courage, Shelton seemed a great candidate to end the wait. But in his first Grand Slam final, he discovered that playing to get there is one thing, and doing it when an entire country craves glory is quite another. In the decisive moments, his nerves got the better of his tennis. The details tell the story. He lost the first set after conceding two breaks to Zverev, both following double faults. In the second set tiebreak, two unforced errors sealed the set for the German. And in the fourth, after shining in the third, he multiplied his mistakes to hand over the title. It wasn’t a defeat caused by lack of tennis, but by Shelton’s difficulty in sustaining it.
He had shown in the quarterfinals against Alcaraz that his game can dismantle anyone, especially on a fast surface, when his serve becomes an almost unsolvable problem. But he still lacks a bit of maturity. If he continues on the same path, opportunities will return, no doubt. But Taylor Fritz not long ago gave exactly the same impression. And time passes. The wait does too.
Zverev’s second
Amid Shelton’s disappointment, Zverev celebrated his second Grand Slam title, the second this year after Roland Garros, a victory that elevates him in history and could even take him to number one in the ATP rankings. At 29 years old, in Paris he broke his personal curse, the one that for years presented him as an exceptional player who was always missing a Grand Slam. This Sunday, in the US Open final, he appeared much calmer, even relaxed.
Read more The Swedish center-left opposition would win the general elections, according to exit polls
“At Roland Garros I was scared, that’s the truth. Every day at press conferences they asked me about it and I thought: What do they want me to say? The truth? That I’m nervous, that I don’t sleep at night and that I don’t eat? So I just answered: it doesn’t affect me, everything’s fine,” he confessed last week in New York about pressure that now seems overcome. This time was different. Already a Grand Slam champion, Zverev appeared on Arthur Ashe simply to do his job: impose his serve, let his backhand run, and wait. He only conceded one break point throughout the match and won 85% of the points played on his first serve. Shelton had the responsibility to lead, to find the solution, to break the match. Zverev just had to do his part.
His victory, however, once again places tennis at a media crossroads. Zverev is the player of the year, that no longer seems to be in dispute. But his rise to stardom is much more complicated because of the shadow that follows his career. His tennis has taken him to a privileged place in history, but his public image carries a burden that doesn’t disappear with trophies. Accusations of abuse from two of his ex-partners, one resolved out of court and another that ended with his acquittal, are an inevitable part of the narrative about him.
From being an uncomfortable player, he has become an uncomfortable champion. And perhaps that is precisely the contradiction that will accompany Zverev in the coming years: the more he wins, the more important his place in history, the harder it will be to separate the exceptional player from the figure who continues to generate rejection off the court.
Read more Alexander Zverev — Ben Shelton, the US Open final live
