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New York - 09/10

Tie-BreakfastSep 10Sep 10, 20265 min

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Today is Thursday, September 10, in New York it's 02:30 and it's 22 degrees. Okay, let's get going.

Today at breakfast

🇺🇸 Shelton beats Alcaraz at 3:33 in the morning
🇰🇿 Rybakina is the new world number one
🇺🇸 Gauff fights off two match points against Andreeva
🇧🇪 Blockx retires, Khachanov reaches the semifinal again
🇩🇪 Zverev wraps it up in three to complete the lineup

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY:

🇺🇸 Shelton Beats Alcaraz At 3:33 In The Morning

Ben Shelton beat Carlos Alcaraz 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 in four hours and twenty-eight minutes. The match ended at 3:33 in the morning, the latest finish in US Open history.

It's his first career win over Alcaraz, who came in off four straight Slam finals and a 15-1 record in fifth sets. "The most fun match of my career," he said afterward, and for once the line holds up even away from the adrenaline. He faces Tiafoe in the semifinal, which guarantees an American in Sunday's final.

🇰🇿 Rybakina Is The New World Number One

Elena Rybakina beat Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in two hours and fourteen minutes, and from Monday, September 14 she'll become the thirtieth world number one in WTA ranking history. Sabalenka's reign ends after ninety-nine weeks.

Down 4-3 and facing break point in the third set, the Kazakh won six straight points. It's her third consecutive win over Zheng this season, after Doha and Madrid, each time coming from a set down, and she now leads their head-to-head 5-1. It ends the Chinese player's run, who had come through qualifying. "Being number one means a lot, I'll appreciate it even more once my career is over," said Rybakina, who had never made it past the fourth round in New York before this year.

🇺🇸 Gauff Fights Off Two Match Points Against Andreeva

Coco Gauff beat Mirra Andreeva 2-6, 7-6(7), 6-2 in two hours and nineteen minutes, fighting off two match points in the second-set tiebreak and closing it out 9-7.

The error count reads forty-two unforced errors and twelve double faults, numbers that usually don't sit on the winning side. "I just had to reset," Gauff explained, "I was thinking about Frances Tiafoe and how he came back." With her in the semifinal are all four top seeds in the draw, something that hasn't happened at the US Open since 1975.

🇧🇪 Blockx Retires, Khachanov Reaches The Semifinal Again

Alexander Blockx retired at 6-2, 7-5, 3-2 for Karen Khachanov. The rib pain he'd played through for almost the entire fourth-round match against Cerundolo got worse to the point that, as he explained himself, he had to change his movements to compensate.

That's how the deepest US Open run ever by a Belgian ends, in a way that was already written in the opening games on Monday. Khachanov, unseeded in the draw, returns to a Slam semifinal for the third time in his career and the first since the 2023 Australian Open.

WHAT HAPPENED OVERNIGHT:

🇩🇪 Zverev Wraps It Up In Three To Complete The Lineup

Alexander Zverev beat Botic van de Zandschulp 6-2, 7-5, 6-1 in just over two hours.

The Dutchman came in off five hours and thirteen minutes against Gea and just two days of recovery, and from the second set on the gap showed most in the long rallies. It's Zverev's third semifinal in New York after 2020 and 2021, in a season that brought him his first Slam in June in Paris against Cobolli. He leads the head-to-head against Khachanov, though at this point that matters less than the fact both arrive at the semifinal with fresh legs.

WHAT HAPPENS TODAY:

Sabalenka vs Pegula - Ashe, night session from 01:00 Italian time. Third straight US Open where they meet from the semifinal on: the 2024 final and the 2025 semifinal, both to the Belarusian, who remains number one until Monday and is defending her title.
Gauff vs Rybakina - Ashe, to follow. Level 1-1 in the head-to-head, with the Kazakh winning the last one in the semifinal at the Canadian Open in August. Tonight will show how much Gauff has learned from that loss.
Men's semifinals - not today. Shelton-Tiafoe and Zverev-Khachanov are played on Friday, with the men's draw taking a twenty-four hour pause after Wednesday night.

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