New York - 09/12
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Ace Cream's daily newsletter during Masters 1000s and Grand Slams, every morning at 8:30 a.m.
Today is Saturday, September 12, in New York it's 2:30 a.m. and it's 19 degrees. Okay, let's go.
On the menu today
- 🇨🇿 Siniakova and Townsend complete the Career Slam in women's doubles
- 🇩🇪 Zverev dispatches Khachanov in three sets and returns to the final
- 🇺🇸 Shelton beats Tiafoe and grabs his first career Slam final
- 🇰🇿 Rybakina will be world number one on Monday, whatever happens tonight
- 🎾 Men's doubles closes the circle opened by Bolelli and Vavassori
WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY:
🇨🇿 Siniakova And Townsend Complete The Career Slam
Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend beat Ashlyn Krueger and Robin Montgomery 5-7, 6-0, 6-2 in one hour and fifty-three minutes, and with this title completed the doubles Career Slam.
The second set took twenty-four minutes. In the third they broke serve at 1-1 and then saved five break points in the closing game, the only moment the wild-card Americans got their noses back into the match. It's Siniakova's second Career Slam, after the one she built with Krejcikova, and very few players get to say that. Townsend closed it out on Ashe, in front of the crowd she grew up with, and afterward said it meant everything to her.
WHAT HAPPENED OVERNIGHT:
🇩🇪 Zverev Dispatches Khachanov In Three Sets
Alexander Zverev beat Karen Khachanov 6-3, 7-6(7), 7-6(6) and is into the US Open final.
The scoreline says three sets, but Zverev fell behind in both tiebreaks before turning them around, and those were the twenty minutes that decided the night. He arrives here off a 2026 with twenty-four wins and two losses in Slam matches, the Roland Garros title and the Wimbledon final lost to Sinner. It's his third major final of the year, for a player who until a few months ago was mostly talked about through what he hadn't won, and he's going through this tournament without running into a top 10.
🇺🇸 Shelton Beats Tiafoe And Reaches The Final
Ben Shelton beat Frances Tiafoe 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 and is the first Black American man in the US Open final since Arthur Ashe in 1972.
Tiafoe took the first set. Then Shelton started serving bigger, finishing with twenty aces, and pushed his returns deeper on his friend's second serve. From there Tiafoe never found a way back in. Shelton will be world number four from Monday, up from number nine at the start of the tournament, and on Sunday he'll try to bring the title back to the United States twenty-three years after Roddick, starting from an 0-5 head-to-head record against Zverev.
WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY:
- Harrison/Skupski vs Krawietz/Puetz - Men's doubles final on Ashe from 6:00 p.m. Italian time. Harrison and Skupski are the pair who eliminated Bolelli and Vavassori in the quarterfinals, then also knocked out top seeds Heliovaara and Patten 7-6, 6-2, and are chasing their second Slam of the season after the Australian Open. Krawietz and Puetz, the sixth seeds, ended the run of Ram and Salisbury and had already reached the final in New York in 2024.
- Sabalenka vs Rybakina - Women's final on Ashe not before 10:00 p.m. Italian time. Their eighteenth meeting, Sabalenka leads 10-7 and has won the last two (the Indian Wells final and the Miami semifinal), but the last Slam meeting went to Rybakina, who let the Australian Open final slip in the second set and closed it out in the third, 6-4 4-6 6-4. Sabalenka is chasing a third straight title at Flushing Meadows, something no one has managed since Serena Williams in 2012-2014.
For further reading
- US Open: Shelton claims first Slam final, beats Tiafoe
- US Open: Saturday, September 12 schedule
- Rybakina, from the comeback against Gauff to the final: "Against Sabalenka we'll need energy and the right decisions"
- Sabalenka and Rybakina to meet in the US Open final: a new record in America
- Siniakova and Townsend complete career Grand Slam together with US Open comeback
- Alexander Zverev makes US Open final, to play for 2nd major
Enjoy your breakfast and have a great day.
See you tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. with TIE-Breakfast
