Alexander Zverev has divided opinion after his title victory at the US Open.
Zverev beat Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-2 to win the title in New York, as he becomes a two-time Grand Slam champion after winning Roland Garros earlier this year.
The German did receive some criticism at the US Open this year, with Zverev’s time taken before serving clearly frustrating some of his opponents.
However, it was actually Zverev’s performance in the US Open final against Shelton that split the opinion of former ATP players John Isner and Steve Johnson.
John Isner disagrees with Steve Johnson saying Alexander Zverev didn’t play his best tennis
Zverev struggled to find his form at times during his run to the US Open this year, particularly in the first couple of rounds where he survived scares in five-set matches.
Although he appeared to be raising his level as the tournament went on, former top 30 player Johnson does not think Zverev was playing his best tennis against Shelton.
“Sascha wasn’t playing his best tennis,” Johnson said on the Nothing Major Podcast. “I think we all had talked about it for the last couple of weeks, he was just finding ways to win.
“It was then basically the status quo. He was good from the ground and beating everyone in front of him. Ben was going to pick a different punch to the rest of the guys.
“It was a bit of a bummer for Ben, he came out nervous and gave his opponent an early break. That settles the nerves for Sascha. I felt he didn’t play his best tennis again, quite frankly, but when you get an early break and you serve as well as Sascha it’s really tough to come back from.
“The first set went as you would expect after that. The second set was much better from Ben, I thought the tennis was getting better and better. I thought he was outplaying Sascha a bit, but then he plays a poor tiebreaker and gets down 5-1, which was just brutal.”
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Despite Johnson’s claim, former Wimbledon semi-finalist Isner had a different take to his podcast co-host, as he explained why he thinks Zverev actually played a good match against Shelton.
“The crowd never really got going. In the third set they did, but from the very first point they did not have much to cheer about until the beginning of the second set tiebreak at 0-0,” responded Isner.
“I disagree [with Johnson] a bit. I thought Zverev played really well and did what he needed to do. The whole gameplan going into this match was to do what he does on serve and just play solid from the back. To not give Ben much pace, I thought he had a game plan and executed it extremely well.
“He had a few instances where he let go of the forehand in some big moments which worked out in his favour. I thought he played a great match and did what he needed to do to beat Ben in four sets.
“He did not have to red-line. He does not have to against anyone other than [Carlos] Alcaraz and [Jannik] Sinner. I thought tactically it was a super smart match and it paid off for him.”
How would you stop Alexander Zverev taking so much time before serving?
Zverev has frustrated opponents at the US Open with his ball bouncing before serving…
Alexander Zverev’s winners and unforced errors against Ben Shelton
Zverev’s performance in the US Open final is reflected by the match statistics, particularly honing in on the importance of his serve.
The serve is one of Zverev’s biggest weapons, and he was able to hit nine aces against Shelton, despite also producing six double faults.
Zverev was very successful on his first serve, but won less than half of his points against Shelton when he hit a second serve.
Despite this, Zverev was only broken once in the entire match by the American, which came in the third set that he lost, where all three of the break points he faced came.
Shelton hit more winners than Zverev with 47, but it was the latter who had a better winner to unforced error ratio, having hit four more winners than unforced errors.
| US Open men’s singles final 2026 | Alexander Zverev’s stats vs Ben Shelton |
| Aces | 9 |
| Double Faults | 6 |
| First serve % | 69% |
| First serve win % | 85% |
| Second serve win % | 47% |
| Break points saved | 2/3 |
| Winners | 35 |
| Unforced errors | 31 |
Zverev’s performance in the US Open ultimately did not matter, as it was good enough to help him to win a second Grand Slam title.
While the Grand Slam season is now over, there are still big goals to achieve this year for Zverev, who can dethrone Jannik Sinner as world number one before the end of the year.
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