History was made at the 2026 United States Open on Wednesday. The latest match ever in the history of the tournament was played. The quarterfinal match between Ben Shelton of the United States and Carlos Alcaraz of Spain ended at 3:33 AM ET with Shelton winning 6-7, 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6.
The match lasted four and 28 minutes. This was not the longest match at the 2026 United States Open. In the fourth round on Monday, Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands defeated Arthur Gea of France 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 in five hours and 13 minutes.
Alcaraz was involved in the second latest match at the U.S. Open. Alcaraz beat Jannik Sinner of Italy 6-3, 6-7, 6-7, 7-5, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the 2022 United States Open, in a match then ended at 2:50 AM.
The reason why this match ended late is because it started extremely late. It had a start time of 11:05 PM ET on Tuesday evening. So why the late start time? It is because the United States Open organizers decided to have four quarterfinal matches on Tuesday all on the same day. Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus beat Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic, 7-6, 3-6, 7-6, Frances Tiafoe of the United States beat Alex Michelsen of the United States, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6, and Jessica Pegula of the United States defeated Emma Navarro of the United States, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
The latest match ever in a grand slam singles tournament happened in 2008. In the third round of the Australian Open, Lleyton Hewitt of Australia defeated Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-7, 6-3 in a match that ended at 4:33 AM in Melbourne.
In the men’s semifinals on Friday, Shelton will face Frances Tiafoe in an all-American matchup. Shelton has won three of four meetings all-time. Meanwhile, Alexander Zverev of Germany will play Karen Khachanov of Russia. Zverev has won six of nine meetings all-time.
