NEW YORK (AP) — The late-night action at the U.S. Open has now reached an extreme.
to beat in the quarterfinals ended at 3:33 a.m. Wednesday, leaving few people awake to see the 4 1/2-hour marathon reach its finale on one of the sport's biggest stages. That only added to about how organizers were managing the schedule at the Grand Slam event with numerous matches straying well past night-owl hours.
Players have long loved the electricity of playing night matches under the lights in the nation’s biggest city. But the tournament had already set a record with three post-2 a.m. finishes over the first six days, as well as having two other matches go past 1 a.m.
That had included to the latest start in U.S. Open history at 12:13 a.m., after it took 4 hours, 36 minutes for in the first round.
"It’s not ideal,” Williams said at the time.
Shelton himself had that ended at 2:07 a.m.
Then came Tuesday night — well, Wednesday morning.
Shelton, a 23-year-old from Atlanta seeded No. 8, earned a massive win in his young career to reach his third major semifinal by taking down the second-seeded Alcaraz 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7). He closed the fifth-set tiebreak with a 146-mph ace and ended the reigning champion's 18-match winning streak in Grand Slam tournaments.
It ended with Arthur Ashe Stadium perhaps one-third full at the finish.
This one set up an all-American semifinal matchup with , with the U.S. guaranteed to have a representative in Sunday's final as it seeks its first major men's title since Andy Roddick won at Flushing Meadows in 2003.
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