Alexander Zverev shatters American dream by beating Ben Shelton to win US Open

Alexander Zverev won his first US Open title (Adam Hunger/AP)

Alexander Zverev shattered the American dream by beating Ben Shelton in the US Open final.

The big-serving German overpowered 23-year-old Shelton to claim his second grand slam title this year.

Although in a bizarre ending, when a Shelton return flew long on match point, Zverev hit the balls back down the other end ready for another game.

Only when Zverev glanced up to the big screen did he realise he had actually won.

Zverev was playing in his sixth major final and Shelton his first, and it showed in the opening stages as the top seed moved ominously into a 2-0 lead.

Shelton showed great resilience to take the match to a fourth set, but Zverev’s 6-3 7-6 (2) 5-7 6-2 victory extinguished America’s hopes of a first male winner since Andy Roddick in 2003.

Shelton, the first black American man to reach the final since Arthur Ashe in 1972, walked out to a rapturous welcome from the partisan 23,000 spectators inside the stadium named after the pioneering Ashe.

A star-studded crowd included actors Brad Pitt, Rami Malek and James Bond star Pierce Brosnan, to whom a mischievous TV director panned with the match clock reading 0.07.

But Shelton looked both shaken and stirred when he double-faulted to hand Zverev a break in the first game, and again on set point as the title favourite eased ahead.

The eighth seed could not force so much as a break point in the first two sets, with Zverev hitting the living daylights out of his own serves.

Shelton had not won a match against Zverev in five previous attempts, but he had not beaten Stefanos Tsitisipas or – most notably – Carlos Alcaraz either until this tournament, so he arrived at Flushing Meadows on Sunday with high hopes.

But Zverev, now swinging freely having unburdened himself of the tag of ‘best player never to win a major’ when he claimed this year’s French Open title, dominated a second-set tie-break.

Shelton dug in, to his credit, and finally brought up three break – and set – points as the Zverev serve suddenly faltered, and the crowd were in full voice again when he converted the second.

But the match was over as a contest when Zverev, who has taken full advantage of the fitness issues and absences of Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner at various times this year, broke early in the fourth.

Zverev’s incessant bouncing of the ball – the stats showed he spent around three hours of his 23-plus hours on court this fortnight bouncing it between serves – finally earned him a time violation.

But the 29-year-old went on to wrap up grand slam title number two, and his first in New York, in three hours and 33 minutes, and after a brief pause began to celebrate it.