US Open 2026 Finals Preview: Shelton v Zverev, Sabalenka v Rybakina After Dramatic Semi-Finals
The US Open finals are set.
Ben Shelton is into his first Grand Slam final after defeating Frances Tiafoe in four sets and will face Alexander Zverev, who has gone from early-round five-set battles to cruising through the second week.
On the women’s side, Elena Rybakina comes from behind again to defeat Coco Gauff and set up a heavyweight final against Aryna Sabalenka.
Chris and Adam review both semi-finals, assess where the key matches turned, and preview the men’s and women’s finals. Can Shelton solve a match-up that has troubled him before? Will Zverev’s fresher legs and experience make the difference? And who gets the edge when Sabalenka and Rybakina meet again with a Grand Slam title on the line?
Transcript
Welcome back to the Talkn Tennis Podcast.
I'm Chris and joining me for this one is Adam.
We've reached the business end of the US Open with both finals now set.
On the women's side, it's Alina Rybakina against Aryna Sabalenka, while on the men's side, Alexander Zverev will take on the home favorite in Ben Shelton.
So in this episode, we'll look back at how all four got there, what stood out from the semifinals, and then break down both championship matches.
There are plenty of different storylines heading into the finals and a few big questions still to answer before the trophies are handed out.
Adam, good to have you back from court 21 and I hope you're feeling a little bit more refreshed today.
Speaker B:Thanks, Chris.
Yes, feeling really refreshed today.
I've detoxed.
Speaker A:I've.
Speaker B:I've gone to aa.
I've gone through all the stuff.
I'm out on the other side, out on the other side so I can watch semi final tennis today, which is really exciting.
So glad to be here and can't wait to talk about all the fun tennis matches that have happened over the last couple of days.
Speaker A:I'm glad you cleaned yourself up and you've got your life in automate.
Please just reach out if you need a hand.
Speaker B:Thanks for holding the podcast down as well.
While, while I've been detoxing.
Speaker A:I know you're more than welcome and I probably should have had my priorities in order and probably looking out my older brother instead of doing podcasting.
But you know, tennis is, it's a serious thing and that's what I'm gonna move forward.
Yeah.
Before we move forward though, I want to speak about the women's and preview some of the matches that have gone by.
And look, we're gonna start with my girl in Alina Rubakana, because she's developing quite a bit of a habit here.
She loses the first set and she makes a few adjustments, then looks completely unfazed by the situation, and then somehow she walks away with the match.
n against Coco Gauff, winning:And this isn't just me getting carried away with one comeback because there's a pretty much a bit of a trend that's developing In Toronto last month, Rybakaner came from a set down to beat Naomi Osaka in the quarterfinals, then did exactly the same thing against Coco Gauff in the semis.
Fast forward to New York and She's now done it in consecutive matches again.
She lost the first set to Jiang in the quarterfinal and 1-366-164.
Then she loses the opening set to Coco and comes back again.
So that is four big wins in roughly a month where she has recovered from a set down against Osaka, Gough, Zhang and Gough again against Coco.
The serve became a massive part of that rebuttal.
Won 76% off her first serve points, compared with 58% for Gough.
And in the siding set, she lost only two points behind her first serve.
Coco deserves credit because she came out playing very well.
She was aggressive.
She took the first set and even broke back when a Rebakener served for the match.
But as the match developed, Rebakkanen just seemed to apply more and more pressure to those Coco service games.
And when Coco was serving out 4, 5 in that second set, the forehand started to leak errors.
Rabakina got then got increasingly aggressive herself, stepped further inside the baseline and started taking more control of the first couple shots in the rally.
Adam, what did you make of Coco's performance?
Because I'm torn on this one.
She was a setup in the US Open semifinal.
Then she had the crowd completely behind her and there were opportunities there.
Do you look at this match for Coco, that maybe got away from her a little bit or maybe it was the case of Rebakena just being cut above.
Speaker B:I think it's a little bit of both.
I think overall Goff had a good tournament, but when push come to shove, she just didn't have what it takes to go with a player at the level of Rebakena.
Even if I look back to Goff's match against Andreva, where Goff did win, but it was not a high quality match at all from both women.
They both had 42 unforced errors in that match and Gough had less winners than Andreva at only 22 winners.
And I think you said she served at 58%.
I think it was in this match against Rebakina.
She served at 59 first serves against Andreeva.
So when you're not serving well, you got a leaky forehand.
You're making a lot of unforced errors.
You're prone to a player like Rebakaner who's a little bit more polished.
But Gough did start well.
She had that break point opportunity in Rebakkina's opening service game, went after the second serve, kept her own error count down in that first set while making four aces of her own.
She got the Break in the sixth game and then served it out to take the opening set 6 3.
But to be fair, in that first set it was more about Rabakana.
I've got 18 unforced errors here in that first set.
And on the second serve for Rabakana, she didn't serve great either.
She only won six points from 12 from her second serve, Rabakina.
So I felt like at the start it was a little bit more about Rabakina and less so about gonna turn that around.
She came out firing, got the early break in the second set, went up 31 after a got a Gough double fault and an overcooked forehand.
Rocker served a lot better in the second and third set.
She raced to a 41 lead, winning seven of eight points.
Gough did mount a bit of a comeback though, in the second.
To her credit, she got it back to 4 all with street with three straight games.
But that forehand, this is where it really turned to for golf.
Pardon my French here.
She made eight forehand errors in the last two or three games in this second set through that closing stretch, obviously where it matters at 4 all and then rebaken a halt serv at love for 54 and then broke again on another goth double fault with another error on the forehand side to take it at one set a piece.
It was a bit.
It looked like it was a bit tight if you're looking at the scores.
In the third set it got to 4 all.
But Rebakkina was just holding really comfortably in that.
In that third set she was not troubled at all.
She want 12 or 13 service points in that third set.
So we know as I was watching it, it was just.
It just felt like it was a matter of time before Rebakkina was going to get that break.
And Goff was just on the back foot really from set 2 onwards.
Rebakkane got a couple of break point looks in the sixth game, couldn't convert, but eventually did get that break in the eighth game to take a 53 lead.
Goff shocked the world to break back and you thought, well, we're here, it's 5 4.
But it didn't happen.
Golf got broken again at, at that point.
Rebakka closed it out in 2 hours 8 minutes and got finished with 34 forehand errors in total.
That being unforced errors and forced errors as a whole.
So that was really the story of the match.
The golf forehand just.
It just fell apart in that second or third set.
She didn't serve well and golf Rebakana was just that little bit better really over the match.
But Rebakkina was far from perfect overall in the match.
55% Of her first serves went in and she made 39 unforced errors.
So I feel like she's going to.
Speaker A:Need to be a little bit better.
Speaker B:Than that if she's going to be arena Sabalenka because she won't have a weak forehand to target like she did with Coco Gauff, which is just the biggest, biggest glaring weakness it feels like for the top 10 women's players at the moment.
Speaker A:I mean, we, we can sometimes get caught up in stats and look at first serve percentages and unforced errors.
And it gets me thinking though, when we just discussed then with Koka Goff's poor first serve percentage, it makes you or makes me think that, you know, perhaps when she's up against better players that maybe what's going on through her mind that she needs to go for more on her first serves or even second serves to get some free points or just get that plus one shot for a winner.
So there's probably a bit more perceived pressure I feel, when you're playing a better opponent, particularly on serve.
And I think the same thing could be said within ground strokes as well.
And even on the forehand side, it's not maybe that her forehand is particularly a bad shot.
Maybe she's just choosing the wrong time to go for the bigger shot or up the risk as well, maybe losing a bit of patience within points.
And so we can look at stats a lot sometimes, but we can overlook perhaps why the mistakes are happening to begin with.
I think maybe just the risk sort of goes up a bit more when you're up against a better player and particularly in pressure moments on a grander stage, in this case a semifinal.
So.
But yes, Rebakana will have to, I mean, her serve was, was ultimately that the difference in, I guess throughout the match and that last set as well.
She was breezing through her service games and she had a lot of chances on Goff's serve to get a lot more break points.
And Goff was just hanging on with the skin of her teeth.
And when Goff did break back, I thought she's no certainty to hold this and to take it, put it back on serve as well, because it's been, it's been an issue.
And you know, lo and behold, Raina breaks to, to win the match.
So it's, and we saw it with.
Speaker B:The other Game as Well with Pula SE gets to 4 all 5 wall.
And you're serving.
That's when the double faults creep in.
That's when the forced errors come into play.
You got to hold your nerve at those crunch points.
It's easy to play with the back against the wall.
I'm five, three down.
I'm just going to go hell for leather now.
And it comes off and it's like, oh, shit, it's five, four now I've got to actually hold.
And yeah, she just, she just couldn't do it when it mattered.
Speaker A:Yeah, those pressure moments, it really brings out or brings out the truth in the player as well and how they handle it.
I mean, it's what makes this game so, so unique and so special.
On the other end, Sabalenka, she's doing what Sabalenka seems to do at the US Open these days.
Jessica Gula pushed her throughout the opening set, but Sabalanka got it 7 5.
And the second set disappeared fairly quickly, being 6 2.
She's now into her fourth consecutive US Open final.
She has won 20 consecutive matches at this tournament and she is one win away from three US Open titles in a row.
that was Serena Williams from:And it gives us a final, which on paper probably it couldn't be much stronger with Sabalenka versus Rabakana.
It's an all Slavic final in terms of the backgrounds, although obviously Rabakana represents Kazakhstan after being born in Moscow, while Sabalanka represents Belarus.
And these two know each other extremely well.
By this point, this will be meeting number 18, with Sabalenka leading the overall head to head 10 7.
But here's the stat that probably tells you how close this really is.
On hard courts, they are tied at seven apiece.
They've also already played three times this year.
Rybakane beat Sabalenka in the AO final of this year.
Sabalenka got her revenge in that brilliant Indian Wells final, and Sabalanka then beat her again in Miami.
in:This essentially becomes the decider, and I don't think there's too much mystery here.
These are probably two of the best first strike players in women's tennis.
Big serves, huge returns, very little interest in politely rallying for 20 shots before somebody decides to attack.
Sabalenko herself has basically described this matchup as being about those opening Couple of balls.
Whoever establishes control first generally puts the other player under enormous pressure.
The other fascinating part is where they are mentally.
Sabalenka is trying to defend her turf.
Two time defending champion, 20 straight wins here, chasing a three peat.
Rybakane already knows that regardless of what happens in this final, she walks out of New York as the new world number one.
And she has just spent two consecutive rounds proving that falling behind on the scoreboard doesn't seem to bother her particularly much.
There's also the crowd question.
For once there isn't an American on the other side of the net.
Sablanka has built a real relationship with Arthur Ashe over the last four years.
She's the more expressive personality, she's the defending champion, and people know exactly who she is.
Rybakana, on the other hand, is almost the complete opposite.
She could win the US Open, become the world number one, collect the check, shake everyone's hand and look like she's just finished doing the groceries.
So I'm fascinated to see who New York adopts for a couple of hours.
Adam, two questions for you.
Firstly, I want to know who wins this final.
And secondly, when they walk out onto Arthur Ashe Stadium, who do you think the neutral New York crowd gravitates towards?
Does Sabalanka get that defending champion love or does the ice queen in Rybakinar become the one they get behind?
Speaker B:Very good questions, Chris.
Neutral New York crowd, They're not neutral at all, mate.
They're going to favor one or the other.
I'll tell you what's going to happen.
They're going to start following or getting behind Rebecca to begin with.
Rebakkina will take the first set.
And then because the crowd wants their money's worth and they don't want to, they don't want this to end in two sets, they want three.
They'll do what any good crowd does.
They'll just start barracking for the underdog, which is what happens nine times out of 10 in these matches where there isn't a hometown favorite.
So they'll start with Rebakkina.
Rebecca will take the lead, and then they'll just be getting on Sabalanka.
It'll go to a deep third set and then it'll just be 50, 50.
And however it falls, it falls.
So that's my prediction.
I'm tipping Sabalanka to win this.
Had you asked me this two weeks ago, I wouldn't believe that I'd be saying that.
But Sabalanka, she's had an amazing tournament.
She's been pretty ruthless right the way through and honestly, I shouldn't have doubted her and I shouldn't be surprised that she's made it this far.
She is the hard court specialist, as they say.
Fourth final, is it?
Yes.
Fourth final in a row.
She's won the last two.
She just, she just makes finals here.
Ninth hard court final in a row.
Is that the stat, Chris?
I don't know if you, I don't know if you had that one on hand.
And she's brought.
That's some sort of record where she's made.
Sorry.
It's eight consecutive Grand Slam hard court records.
Harcourt final.
Sorry.
Surpassing the seven achieved by Steffi Graf, Martina Hingis and Novak Djokovic.
So eight consecutive Grand Slam hardcore finals.
So I shouldn't be shocked that she's made it this far, but particularly not just because of that, but because her form at the start of the year on hardcourts was impressive.
As you said, she's played Rubakano three times, Indian Wells, Miami and the Australian Open.
So she's just, she's almost unstoppable on this surface.
And she's been pretty untroubled this tournament so far because, yeah, she's only dropped the one set in arguably her hardest match, which was the quarterfinal against Linda Niskova where she had to win in three with two type tiebreakers as well.
So look, I'm tipping Sabalanka.
She's been, she's been dominating this tournament.
I think she'll win in three sets.
To your point on, Rebecca now feels like she is a little bit, I don't say hot and cold, but she can, she can play really well for a set but then just go quiet in the next one.
So I'm predicting a three setter here with Sabalenka taking it.
And I'm just going to pick Sabalenka because I know you're going to pick Rubakana.
So I feel like we need to be one each.
Obviously.
Speaker A:Yeah, it just wouldn't be a talking tennis podcast EP if we just didn't.
If we didn't disagree.
So, yeah, obviously have to go with Rebakena as well.
It's going to be interesting to see what the first 20 minutes in the match looks like as well.
And if Rebar all stay true to her form in starting a bit slower and you know, just taking a bit of time just to wake up and up her level.
But we know with sick and just run, run on and go on a massive roll and, and just, yeah, play with utter devastation.
Speaker B:So it's.
Speaker A:Yep.
They're building quite the.
The record that these two ladies.
And it's, you know, if we.
If you like, we.
Like you said before, if we.
We wouldn't probably have thought two weeks ago that we'll get in a Rubbakana Sabalenka final as well.
So here we are.
It's going to be a good one, I tell you, but Rebakena all the way and probably.
Well, I have to go three sets as well.
Just for some reason, I just can't see Rebakkina winning in straight sets.
I don't think.
I don't think she likes to play two sitters.
She just loves tennis that much.
More tennis the better.
Speaker B:She'll have the same emotion if she wins or loses, that's for sure.
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean, we saw a lot of emotion when she turned to her box and I think she smiled.
I'm not 100% sure.
It's like a split second.
Both the double fist pump.
So smiles this one.
I don't know what kind of celebration we'll get if she wins the final.
Who knows.
But we'll be tuning in regardless to watch that.
Adam, I'm going to talk about the semifinals.
And Sveriv, well, it's quite remarkable how different his tournament looks now compared with the opening few days.
We know that Zverev needed five sets in each of his first two matches.
After the second round finished at around three in the morning, Zverev said he and his team were basically sitting in the locker room laughing at how badly he had played since then.
Four matches, four straight sets wins.
He hasn't dropped a set since round two.
this semifinal score line of:Catching off actually broke a run of 37 consecutive Zverev service games without being broken during that second set.
Then in the third set, tire break.
Kachanov was 52 ahead.
He eventually had two set points at 6 4.
Zverev won the next four points and finished the match.
That's probably the biggest difference between the Zverev we watched in those first couple of rounds and the version we're seeing now.
He's not necessarily blowing everybody off the court, but he looks settled.
He trusts the serve.
He's managing the important points better.
He is spending five hours trying to solve problems anyway, physically, that matters.
Those first 25 setters don't suddenly disappear from his legs.
There's still cumulative workload there, but in terms of acute fatigue, the picture looks considerably better now.
Four consecutive straight set matches means he stopped adding huge amounts of physical stress late in a tournament.
So instead of arriving at this stage after another marathon, he's had several rounds where he's been able to.
To get on, get the job done, and get off.
For somebody who looked like he could potentially cook himself during the first week, Zverev has actually managed to turn this into quite an efficient second week.
And that may end up being one of the biggest stories of the tournament.
Adam, would you like to apologize to Zverev for writing him off early in the tournament?
Speaker B:I guess I have to because he's proven me wrong.
Well, he proved me right in the first couple of rounds.
I said pre tournaments.
I didn't think he would.
I didn't think he'd get past, say, the round of 16 or quarterfinal stage.
His form running into the tournament just hadn't been great.
And the first couple of rounds, I thought, well, he's not going to last that long just based on these, you know, 2am finishes, these marathon, five setters.
But credits credit where credit's due because he's turned the corner.
He's found his form and he's gotten better as the tournaments rolled on.
And lux of fortune sometimes because he has not had to play anybody of.
Speaker A:Of.
Speaker B:With all due respect, the.
The caliber of player that Ben Shelton has had to beat en route to the final.
So.
But as I say, you can only play who's in front of you, and Zverev has done the job, and he's in his.
He's in another Grand Slam final.
So look, he's.
Yeah, he had a tough match against Hatchenov and got the job done there.
So, I mean, I only wish I had Zverev in my fantasy team.
Chris, what can I say?
Speaker A:Yes, it was a risk that a lot of people weren't willing to take on.
They jumped on the Alcaraz bandwagon and fair enough to them.
But some people were bearish on Zerf.
Not me.
I mean, I've made a lot of big calls in probably like the past month or so.
I believe I said no one in the top seven would win this tournament, and, well, that's wrong now because the finalists contained the first seed and, well, whatever seed Shelton is.
So, yeah, here we are.
But it's throwing a lot of unpredictable unpredictability nonetheless, this tournament.
The other semifinal that has taken place was the All American semifinal where Charlton gets it done over Tiafo in four sets.
466-36-375.
And early on I thought Tiafo was the cleaner of the two.
Shelton looked a little erratic in the opening set and at 45 he throws a double fault to hand Tiafo the break.
Thiappa then serves it out to Love.
And at that point he probably couldn't have asked for a much better start.
But the match changed pretty quickly in the second.
Shelton broke straight away.
Tiafo managed to break back and get it to two all.
But from there, Shelton started putting much more pressure on the Tiafo serve.
It wasn't just Shelton's big serving.
He started getting after TR for second serve, making those service games increasingly uncomfortable.
At 4:3 in the second, he gets another break and serves it out the sets.
And from there it felt like Shelton had found his rhythm.
He had already had nine aces and was landing 75% of his first serves by the start of the third.
The third set was probably where Charlton really took control.
He break.
He gets the break to go up 3 2.
And later Tiafo actually does a really good job of hanging around.
He saves three break and set points when serving at 3:5.
But on the fourth, Shelton absolutely jumps on the second serve and rifles a backhand return down the line.
That was probably one of the shots of the match for me because it summed up what Shelton had started doing differently.
He wasn't just waiting for Tiafa to miss, he he was actively attacking that second serve and taking the match away from him.
And then the fourth set becomes a completely different contest.
No breaks for the first 11 games.
Tiafo is hanging in there.
And a five all.
You're starting to think maybe we're heading towards a fifth.
Shelton holds forces here for to serve and stay in the match at 5 6.
And that's when he finally gets the opening one break.
Match over.
And that's what impressed me about Shelton.
It wasn't some ridiculous lights out performance from start to finish.
Some of the match poorly by his standards.
But he adjusted the serve, settled down, the return became more aggressive, and as the match went on, he became the player dictating more of the important points.
The fourth set then required him to stay patient until the opportunity finally came.
Portia for unfortunately, it's another deep run in New York that ends just short of the final.
Adam, did the result surprise you?
Considering Shelton had to come back after a big quarterfinals matchup against Alcaraz,.
Speaker B:Yes.
In short, I was a little bit surprised.
I thought the match against Alcaraz would have took a lot out of Shelton.
It looked like it did take a lot out of Ben Shelton but credit to him because he's been incredible right the way through this tournament.
We talked about this last time we potted you and I, Chris, a few days back and just the tough matches that Shelton has had en route to the final.
Every match has been a difficult run, a difficult one right from the start in round one against Talon Greekspoor to knocking off Alcaraz, to beating Sid Sepas to beating Tiafo today I thought he held himself really well today and particularly after the first set, a little bit disappointing to drop that one, but I've just felt like he was in control pretty much right the way through from set two to set four.
So I'm surprised that I don't say he won comfortably, but I'm, I would have thought this would have gone to five and Tiafo would have been able to drag this out and make this a lot, a little bit more difficult for Ben Shelton than, than maybe what happened.
But credit to credit where credit's due for Ben Sheldon because I thought he was fantastic today and I think he's been, he's been the MVP for the tournament for mine.
He's played three, five setters, two four setters, lots of sets with seven five and seven six in them.
He's had to work really hard right the way through to get to this point.
So yeah, credit where credit shoe is going to be a cracking final.
I wonder what the record is, Chris, for most sets played throughout a tournament, do you think?
Three, five setters, two four setters and potentially a four or five sitter in the final.
Got to be up there.
You would have thought that's a lot of tennis to for say a winner if he wins hypothetically.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's probably something I'd have to look into actually.
I mean in terms of who holds the record for most.
Speaker B:Not a stat you hear about a lot.
Speaker A:No, no it's not.
But definitely one worth looking into.
But yes, he has played, you know, some, you know, quite a bit of sets and quite a good, good amount of players and I reckon it's prepared him well to, for him to get to this stage.
And I'm not going to get your predictions just yet because I want to talk a bit about the final between Zverev and Shelton and the first thing that stands out to me is just how different these two have arrived here.
Zverev looked like he might completely cook himself in the opening couple of rounds, but since then he settled into the tournament.
Scholta Meanwhile, has had to come through Alcaraz in five sets and then back it up against Tiafo today.
Zverev probably comes into this final with the fresher legs, while Shelton comes in with a bigger emotional wave behind him.
Then there's the head to head.
Zverev is 40 against Charlton.
And it's not just one surface either.
He's beating him on clay, grass and hardcore.
And there's another stat which makes the matchup even more interesting.
Sverev has been almost untouchable against left handers.
He's now won 43 of his last 44 matches against lefties and obviously Charlton falls into that category.
I think that matters because one of the natural advantages Shelton gets as a left hander is being able to open up the court and target the backhand side of right handed players.
Zverev though, it's not necessarily where you want, ball four zero, but it's not really, it's not really what you want.
If you're Ben Shelton, you're potentially feeding one of the best backhands in the game.
So Shelton's usual patterns may not have quite the same effect here.
There's also one slightly ridiculous subplot I'm going to be watching and sort of caught my eye.
Shelton got pretty annoyed with the chair umpire today against Tiafo because he felt Tiafo was going beyond the zero on the serve clock.
Now look, there was some leniency from the chair umpire because they just played a couple of massive rallies including 1 over 30 shots.
So you can understand why the umpire gave Tiafa a little extra time.
But Shelton was, he was frustrated by it enough to go up to the chair after a point and just say his piece.
So if that bothered him, I'm not sure how he's going to cope with Zverev's ball bouncing antics.
Zverev even received a time violation against Kachanov in the semi final and Kachanov spoke afterwards about how difficult it can be as a returner because you set yourself, you wait, you reset and Zverev, well, he just keeps bouncing the ball.
So it sounds like a tiny thing, but with Shelton being an emotional player, I actually think it's actually worth keeping an eye on.
Does Very start slowing the tempo, taking his time, making Shelton wait between points?
Does Shelton stay locked in or does he start getting distracted by something happening at the other end of the court?
Because this final is already asking Shelton to solve a matchup he's never solved before.
He's 0 on 4 against verve.
He's facing a Bloke who's being dominant against left handers and he's now playing his first Grand Slam final.
But to the counter to all that is pretty obvious.
Charlton is playing the best tennis of his career.
He's playing in New York and that crowd is going to be desperate to see an American man finally win this title again.
I'm pretty sure the US crowd are most of the degenerates on our tennis who love to hate on Zverev as well.
So Adam, I put that one there for you, mate, because I thought you'd appreciate it when you put all of this together.
What concerns you more if you're scholten, is it 0 to 4, head to head or is the bigger challenge keeping himself emotionally controlled over five sets against someone like Zverev?
And ultimately who are you taking?
Speaker B:It's going to be the emotions and the pressure is the thing for Ben Shelton that he's going to have to overcome more than anything.
He's playing just as good, if not better than Alexander's Verev at the moment.
So all things being equal, he's got every chance to win this match, but he's going to need to keep his emotions in check.
He will have the home crown advantage and he will have the fans all behind him, not just because they're all redditors who are anti Zverev, but because he's the American and the hometown favorite.
So I think that'll help give him a bit of encouragement.
But that's the thing he's going to have to get over.
He's going to just, he's going to, he's going to be nervous at the start.
He's just going to have to get through the first couple of games, settle in and give it his best crack.
I said at the start of the tournament your prediction was no.
1 In the top seven.
Lucky for you, Chris Shelton is the eighth seed.
So you're in it with a chance.
I said we're going to get a first time Grand Slam champion was my prediction pre tournament.
So I've got a 50, 50 shot of that happening.
So I'm gonna go with Ben Shelton to win this.
I think he's, he's formed not just this tournament, but going back to Montreal as well where he won that tournament.
I think he's primed for this one and I think it is his time to take out the crown.
I did a little bit of research in Chris, while you were giving us that preview there, I was mistaken.
I counted 25 sets he's won 24 sets this.
Sorry, he's played 24 sets, I should say this tournament, the record for a winner is 29.
Boris Becker and Gustavo Quirton for a winner.
So if he wins in five, he'll equal those two gentlemen as most sets play to win.
The all time record is held by our favorite on this podcast, the man who's 50% responsible for the intro of this podcast, Daniel Medvedev.
Sets in the:So 31 is the all time record.
So Shelton won't get that one unfortunately.
But geez, that's a marathon and a half.
So yeah, there's your little fun fact for the week.
But no, I'm going Ben Shelton, I'm, I just hope he does it.
I think it's, it's good that we see some different Grand Slam winners, but if Zverev takes it, it'll be a crazy year for him to be a two time Grand Slam champion in the same season.
So it's going to be intriguing one way or the other.
Who are you leaning towards, Christopher?
Speaker A:Well, I want to start with the fact that I don't know if it's just bias because it's in America and you see the crowd, you see the hype, but Shelton just seems destined to win this.
He, it just looks, it just seems like it's fate and he's going to win this.
But I want Verif to win because for so many years we've been talking about, or the tennis enthusiasts have been talking about when is Veriv going to win his first Grand Slam title and the fact that he's won one now he's a finalist, I said it months ago, is that maybe when he wins one then it'll just become a lot easier to win number two and so on.
So I, I'm not as very of hater.
I don't know why he had so many haters.
Maybe because he, he has a bit of a soak here and now.
But besides the point, I want him to win, I want the bloke to win and I want him to see some more reward for his effort over his career.
And I think when the pressure comes in the bigger moments, he's going to be, he's going to be the veteran player who's been familiar with the situation and the occasion.
The first set will be very interesting from Shelton's perspective to see how big does he go, does he play tentative, does he play too big?
You know, what, what does the error count look like?
I feel like with zero if we know what we're going to get.
He's just, he's just going to be solid but it'll be, it's very interesting.
Speaker B:A lot of bounce out of the ball.
That's what we.
Speaker A:That, that that's his routine and he's within the parameters of the rule book so there's not much you can, you know, you can complain about.
So Angon's veriv but at the moment I don't know, it just feels like fate and destiny just it, it wants an.
An American winner in Shelton so But I'm gonna verif that's my pick.
Verified a record.
Speaker B:Pretty, pretty cruisy run this tournament.
He's not played anybody in the top 20.
He's hardest player that he's had this beat at least from a numbers perspective is Dadairy 21st seed.
He copped Hatchinov in the semi final.
Who as you like to kindly point out to me, Chris was playing challenges not that long ago losing to Bernard.
Was it a challeng a ATP 250 event he lost to burn our tonic.
Speaker A:It was 250 was the lost car boss.
Speaker B:So it was, it was, it was a 250 event.
It wasn't a challenger event.
It was 250s losing in 250 events to Bernard Tomic.
So I don't know, just the body van der Zen schlop like I mean it's a pretty cruisy run and even again take nothing away from the French Open.
He won.
You beat who you beat on the day but again really cruisy run to get there as well.
So taking nothing from him but you beat who you beat in front of you.
I just feel like yeah, Shelton's, Shelton's played the harder opponent and I feel like is potentially going to be the better player on the day.
Speaker A:Well, I disagree but we'll see what we get.
Well, what a shock.
Adam.
We're going to wrap it up there.
We'll leave it there.
Both finals are set.
The semi finals have given us plenty to talk about.
Now it all comes down to one last match on each side.
Adam, do you have any final thoughts before we get out of here?
Speaker B:Thank you to everybody who's listened to our U.S. open podcast throughout the last couple of weeks.
We hope you've enjoyed it.
And stay tuned for more tennis after the US Open is done because the tennis calendar does not stop.
So stay tuned.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Well said.
We'll be back after the finals to break down both champions where the matches were won and lost and what it all means Heading out of New York.
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