By Roger Childs 

It will be Ben Shelton who gets a shot at becoming the first American man to win a Grand Slam in 23 years.

Women’s final – a repeat of the Australian Open?

Back in February, Khazak Elena Rybakina beat Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus 6-4 4-6 6-4 in the Melbourne grand slam. Now in the last major of 2026 the two champions from Eastern Europe meet again. The spectators at Flushing Meadows will be disappointed that there is no American in the final but locals Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff were well beaten in the semis by the Europeans. 

My pick is for Rybakina to prevail over the 2024 and 2025 champion. However, Sabalenka will be desperate to take her third American major in a row. 

Men’s final – Ben Shelton’s opportunity

In recent years Shelton has been vying with Tommy Paul, Taylor Fitz and Frances Tiafoe to be America’s top ranked singles player. In the quarter finals at Flushing Meadows this year he beat number two seed and last year’s winner Carlos Alcaraz. It was an epic match that lasted nearly four and a half hours and ended at 3.33 am in the morning. – the latest finish ever in US Open history. 

Shelton prevailed 6-7 6-1 6-3 1-6 7-6 ultimately in tie-break that went to 10-7. It was a high quality match and spectators were well entertained as both players exhibited powerful ground strokes, excellent retrievals and classy drop shots.  This will be the American’s first grand slam final and if he wins he will be the first US men’s singles winner since Andy Roddick in 2003.

Alexander Zverev, the top seed and winner of the last grand slam at Roland Garros, is Shelton’s opponent and although he struggled in the early rounds with two gruelling five setters in the first two, he has played better since. In his semi-final he beat Russian Karen Kharchanov 6-3. 7-6, 7-6. 

Ben Shelton will have his work cut out but won’t be short of crowd support.