US OPEN

September 9, 2026

Ben Shelton

Quick Quotes

B. SHELTON/C. Alcaraz

6-7, 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6

Q. Congratulations. You're into the US Open semifinals. How are you feeling after five long sets out there?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I'm tired. You know, that was a war, epic match, so physical.

Yeah, Carlos is one of the greatest champions in our sport already at 23 years old. It's always fun being on the court against him. It's ridiculous some of the stuff he comes up with sometimes.

But, yeah, the most enjoyable match that I've had in my career, for sure.

Q. You go back to the -- right after the first set tiebreak, we've seen so many times where Carlos sort of steals one of those sets and then goes on a roll. What do you tell yourself after you work for 70 minutes and got nothing to show for it?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I was pissed, but I broke the last game before the tiebreaker, so that kind of helped my confidence going into the second set.

I knew that my serve was only going to get better, and if I had already dialed in the return to the point that I could break him, I thought my chances were good to get that second set.

Once I got rolling the second set, broke him three times in that set, it was a lot easier to just play and swing more freely.

Q. What was getting you so much success breaking him? You broke him a lot tonight. What was the key there?

BEN SHELTON: I returned really well. I thought I was smart with how I went about my return games. I thought I made him play a lot.

I thought I capitalized on him missing, like when he missed a spot, and I didn't worry or stress too much when he hit his spot on a return-borne ace.

I think for me to be able to hang in there in the rallies, have a game plan from the ground, and be able to execute that game plan and not be losing all the baseline points also helps with the return.

Q. It seemed like you were on a great wave length with your dad. Just a lot of good communication, slapping your hand if you lost one of those crazy points. What was it like having him there in your corner in a war like that?

BEN SHELTON: For us, it was just enjoyable to be a part of that match. Obviously the level of tennis, how long the match was going, the fight that it was, how even of a match it was back and forth throughout, I think that that's something that we can appreciate.

Win or lose, we would have a smile on our face.

Q. Do you think you have enough time to recover before Friday?

BEN SHELTON: Two days, yeah, I think I'll be all right.