Ben Shelton was not the only American in a final at the US Open this year.
Shelton beat Carlos Alcaraz en route to his first Grand Slam final at the New York major.
The 23-year-old was hoping to become the first American man to win a Grand Slam singles title since Andy Roddick in 2003, but Shelton was beaten by Alexander Zverev in the US Open final.
While there was no American champion in the senior singles events, there was a home winner in the junior tournament.
Americans have won the junior boys’ title at Wimbledon and the US Open this year
An American boy Jordan Lee, who Shelton has spoken very highly of, won the junior title at Wimbledon this year.
The 16-year-old was hoping to go back-to-back at the US Open, where an American had not won the boys’ junior title since Taylor Fritz in 2015.
While Lee was able to reach the quarter-finals, his run came to an end at this stage of the tournament after he was beaten by top seed Guto Miguel, despite having three points in this match.
Instead, it was another American who went all the way, as unseeded Marcel Latak would go on to beat Miguel in a dramatic final where he saved three championship points.
Latak also reached the boys’ doubles final alongside fellow American Tanishk Konduri, but they were beaten by the French-Spanish pairing of Aaron Gabet and Valentin Gonzalez-Galino.
Although Shelton was unable to leave New York with the title, he still produced his best ever Grand Slam run at the US Open and there is also clearly a wave of young talent for America to get excited about.
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What has happened to American women for just the third time at Grand Slams this year?
While there has been a lot of conversation surrounding American men not winning a Grand Slam singles title for 26 years, American women have been enjoying a lot of success during this time.
However, that was not the case this year, as no American woman reached a final at any of the four majors, which was confirmed after both Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula lost in the US Open semi-finals.
As a result, it is just the third time since the US Open began in 1887 that no American woman has reached a Grand Slam singles final.
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The two other occasions of this happening were in 1937 and 2006, with an American woman at least reaching one Grand Slam championship match in every other year.
This is a remarkable statistic, but the likes of Gauff and Pegula will be hoping to prevent it from happening for a fourth time next year.
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