Ben Shelton to fight for first American men’s US Open win in 13 years

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Shelton, who will face top seed Alexander Zverev at the Arthur Ashe stadium on Sunday, celebrated his semi-final win by telling the crowd: “Let’s do this for the USA!”

The last American man to win the US was Andy Roddick. Shelton will also be the first Black American man to compete in a US Open final since Arthur Ashe in 1972.

The 23-year-old from Florida beat fellow American Frances Tiafoe on a poignant day when New York remembered the September 11 terror attacks, 25 years on.

Following his match he took a moment to acknowledge the day, saying: “It’s a difficult day to be out here playing. My thoughts and prayers go to all the families who were impacted by 9/11.”

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Tiafoe, known as ‘Big Foe’, played his part in the Big Apple, but ultimately came up short after four hard-fought sets.

He was the aggressor in the first set and the pressure told when he brought up break point at 4-4 and Shelton, whose previous match at the tournament ended at 3:33am, promptly double-faulted.

However, the gloves were off at the start of the second with Shelton breaking to love and Tiafoe hitting straight back to 15.

A 78mph backhand winner brought Shelton – showing no ill-effects from knocking out defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in the latest match of the tournament – another break point to level the match.

A cross-court backhand winner secured Shelton a break in the third to put him ahead for the first time.

He struck again at the end of the fourth to wrap up an emotional 4-6 6-3 6-3 7-5 win and reach his first grand slam final.

Top seed Zverev said in response to Shelton’s rallying call, “hopefully I cannot make the American dream come true.”

The German is facing his third successive major final after winning the French Open and finishing runner-up at Wimbledon.

He is going to face a partisan crowd on Arthur Ashe Stadium, one that already made its feelings clear when he was given a time violation for his incessant bouncing of the ball before serving.

Khachanov, the Russian world number 50 who lost his semi-final to Zverev 6-3 7-6 (7) 7-6 (6) in just under three hours, said: “I mean, the way he bounces the ball, look, it annoys not only me, of course, a lot of players, because it takes so much time.

“You don’t know how to prepare for the serve. You are, like, ready, and then it’s another 12 bounces, you know, so you again do a split step. Every point is like that.

“At the end of the day, if it’s within the rules with the time between points, I cannot say anything against that. If he extends the time, then he gets a time violation, so it’s as simple as that.”

Zverev insisted it is not a deliberate ploy. He said: “I have no idea why. I’m not doing it on purpose.

“I saw a stat, like, I’d bounced it 12,000 times or something like that. That’s quite funny.”