Former Gator Ben Shelton has been one of the rising stars in tennis over the past few years, and on Friday night, he took one step closer to being the American star that has been missing on the men’s side over the years. Shelton, the No. 8 seed at the US Open, defeated Frances Tiafoe 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 to advance to the finals against No. 1 seed Alexander Zverev on Sunday.
Shelton’s biggest advantage came at the service line, where he racked up 20 aces to Tiafoe’s three and had a 1st serve percentage of 75% to Tiafoe’s 57%. Shelton was able to parlay that into breaking Tiafoe’s serve five times while having his own serve broken just twice.
This will be the first final in a major that Shelton has made. He previously made the semifinals of the US Open in 2023 and the Australian Open in 2025. He will seek to become the first American male to win the US Open since Andy Roddick did it in 2003…