- Twenty-year-old Ben Shelton upset fellow American Frances Tiafoe to reach the US Open semifinals.
- It has been 20 years since an American won a men's Grand Slam tournament.
The resurgence of Americans has become one of the bigger stories on the men's side of this year's US Open, and none is bigger now than Ben Shelton.
The 20-year-old Shelton, who was still playing college tennis a year ago at the University of Florida, beat fellow American Frances Tiafoe to reach the semifinals and set up a match against Novak Djokovic.
Even if Shelton falls to Djokovic, a star has been born.
His serves hit 140 mph. His blistering forehands look like they were shot out of a t-shirt canon. He is confident. He screams a lot and seems unlikely to reel in the exuberance despite announcers suggesting he should during grueling Grand Slam matches.
He also knows how to play up to the crowd. The one time he didn't yell after a big point was when he won the match. Instead, he celebrated by mimicking a phone call and hanging up.
BEN SHELTON ANSWERED THE CALL ☎️ #USOpen pic.twitter.com/3CZmrsVUtM
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 6, 2023
Even before beating Tiafoe, Shelton was the youngest American to reach the quarterfinals since 2002. He is now the youngest American man to get to the semis of a major tournament since 2003 and the youngest at the US Open since 1992.
Shelton is not alone
The timing couldn't be better for American men's tennis. An American hasn't won a Grand Slam since Andy Roddick won the US Open in 2003.
Three other American men are ranked among the top 13 in the world, and they are all under the age of 27 (Shelton jumped 28 spots to No. 19 in the world with his win over Tiafoe).
Tiafoe is 25 and just fell out of the top 10 to No. 11 following his loss to Shelton.
Taylor Fritz is also 25 and is now up to No. 8 in the rankings after reaching the US Open quarters before losing to Djokovic.
Tommy Paul is 26 and ranked 13th after his Round of 16 loss to Shelton.
This is notable because men's tennis has been dominated by five players for the last 20 years, including the Big 3 — Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal — along with Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka. Those five have combined to win 71 of the last 80 men's Grand Slam titles.
Djokovic and Murray, at 36, are the youngest of that group. Federer, 42, has already retired. Nadal, 37, is expected to retire in 2024, while 38-year-old Wawrinka and 36-year-old Murray are nearing the end. Meanwhile, while Djokovic is arguably the greatest winner in sports since Michael Jordan, he has passed the torch of the best player in the world to Carlos Alcaraz.
But who will join the young Spaniard atop the sport for the next decade?
There are some non-American candidates, including Denmark's Holger Rune (age 20), Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas (25), Italy's Jannik Sinner (22), Norway's Casper Ruud (24), Germany's Alexander Zverev (26), and Australia's Alex de Minaur (24). Those players are already in the top 13 of the world rankings. But the US is the only country with multiple players under the age of 27 ranked that high, and they have three.
That number could become four if Shelton can find a way to beat Djokovic.
Some worried about the state of men's tennis as the flame of the Big 3 started to fade. But now, it looks like the American men are ready to fill the void.