NEW YORK — Frances Tiafoe has played Ben Shelton five times and Alexander Zverev 10 times, and he has beaten Shelton once and Zverev once. Hours after losing the semifinal that put Shelton into Sunday’s US Open final, Tiafoe was asked what Shelton has to do against a man he has never beaten, and he went to the tiebreaks first.
“He’s going to have to take your moments and Ben’s been doing a really good job of that. Continue to get the ground on his side and see what happens,” Tiafoe said. “Both those guys are going to serve with a high clip and probably going to come out on some breakers, and obviously take the head-to-head out of it and actually believe in winning a tennis match. He’s got to be good for a couple hours, maybe plus, and see what happens.”
Zverev leads Shelton 5-0. Four of the 11 sets the two have played went to a tiebreak, and Zverev won all four, according to Tennis Now. The final starts Sunday at 1 p.m. CT on ABC.
The Tiebreak Records Both Finalists Bring to Sunday
Shelton is 26-14 in tiebreaks in 2026 and 4-0 in tiebreaks at this US Open. Zverev is 30-14 in tiebreaks this season and 5-2 at this tournament.
Zverev won two of them Friday. He beat Karen Khachanov 6-3, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (8-6) after Khachanov held two set points in the second-set breaker and led the third 4-1 with two more, per the ATP Tour. Khachanov won more points than Zverev in the second set, 44 to 43, and lost it.
Shelton lost a first-set tiebreak to Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinal and won the match in a 10-point breaker, 10-7, after neither man was broken in the fifth set. Match point was a 146 mph ace. He also won a first-set breaker against Denis Shapovalov in the third round and lost the second one.
In five-set matches, Zverev is 26-15 in his career and 6-3 at the US Open. Shelton is 9-4 and 1-2.
What Frances Tiafoe Saw From Ben Shelton’s Serve
Serve percentage is the number Tiafoe says still lags for him even in a season of winning matches, and Friday night he was working through his own service games while Shelton was not.
“It’s kind of hard, especially lefties moving around, spins, kicks, sliders, big ones. Obviously he can get it up there when he’s really juicing out,” Tiafoe explained. “And for me, I’m grinding service games and then he was trying to break. I think that was the biggest thing.”
Shelton hit 20 aces against three double faults in the semifinal and landed 75% of his first serves. Tiafoe hit three aces and landed 57%. Tiafoe won 9 of his 13 second-serve points in the opening set and 38% of his second-serve points across the four sets.
Shelton’s fastest serve of the tournament is a 147 mph ace against Shapovalov. His fastest against Tiafoe was 149 mph, after the US Open and Hawk-Eye corrected an initial 158 mph reading to 144 mph.
Zverev’s return position is the counter. At the 2025 Nitto ATP Finals, the last time the two played, Shelton won 10 of 54 return points and Zverev won 16 of 21 points played against Shelton’s second serve.
Tiafoe holds a 1-4 record against Shelton, with his lone win coming in a five-set third-round match at the 2024 US Open. He is 1-9 against Zverev. Sunday is the first Zverev-Shelton meeting at a major.
