Carlos Alcaraz’s bid to defend his US Open crown ended in the quarter-finals after a demanding five-set defeat to Ben Shelton in a match that pushed deep into the early hours. The Spaniard, a seven-time Grand Slam champion, had returned to competition after a long spell away with a wrist injury and had looked sharp through his opening four matches, losing only one set on the way to the last eight.

Against Shelton, however, the challenge proved too steep. The American delivered a powerful performance under pressure and edged a 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7) victory in a contest that made US Open history for the latest finish ever recorded at the tournament. The match ended at 3:33am, with Shelton claiming his first win over the Spaniard.

Shelton now moves on to meet Frances Tiafoe for a place in the 2026 US Open final, while Alcaraz’s tournament is complete. The result also has significant ranking consequences. Alcaraz earned the maximum 2,000 points for winning the 2025 US Open, but those points dropped off under the ATP’s rolling 52-week system before the 2026 event began.

He started the tournament on 7,160 points in the official standings and had fallen to 5,160 before adding fresh points through his wins in New York. A quarter-final appearance is worth 400 points, leaving him on 5,560 in the Live ATP Rankings, a loss of 1,600 points from his title defence.

There is still a measure of comfort for the two-time US Open champion. He is guaranteed to remain at No 3 after the event. Jannik Sinner will stay at No 1 with 11,500 points, while Alexander Zverev sits on 8,090 and could reach 9,690 with a title run. Shelton has climbed to No 4, although even a championship would leave him with a maximum of 5,380 points.

Alcaraz also passed the $5m mark in 2026 prize money, with his US Open quarter-final cheque taking his earnings for the year and career total higher again.

When Carlos Alcaraz hurt his wrist at the Barcelona Open in April, the reaction was immediate concern. Wrist problems have already altered the careers of some of the game’s most gifted players, including Dominic Thiem and Juan Martin del Potro.

Both men reached the top of the sport and both won Grand Slam titles, yet injuries left their careers with lingering what-ifs. Thiem’s own turning point came at the Mallorca Open in 2021, less than a year after he lifted his first and only Grand Slam trophy at the US Open in 2020. After that, he was never truly able to rejoin the ATP Tour’s top tier. Del Potro’s path was similarly affected by chronic issues in both wrists, which repeatedly interrupted a career of huge promise.

Now Thiem has offered his view on Alcaraz’s recovery and the way the Spaniard has returned to a high level at this year’s US Open. In an interview with El Mundo, the Austrian said: “I expected him to really take his time, to manage the injury well, and I think he has done it.

“With an injury, you need a lot of patience. I didn’t return to playing very soon, but I did go back to training. Everything Carlos did right, I did wrong.”

So far, Alcaraz has done little to suggest the wrist has significantly changed his game, apart from a serve that looks a bit less powerful than before the injury. He has moved into the US Open quarter finals with wins over Roman Safiullin, Jaime Faria, Wu Yibing, and Tommy Paul.

He has conceded only one set in four matches, an impressive return given that he had not played a singles match for four and a half months.

Next comes his toughest assignment yet. Alcaraz will face Ben Shelton for a place in the semi finals, and Shelton’s strong form at Flushing Meadows should provide a serious examination of the Spaniard’s wrist and match sharpness. Even so, Alcaraz has already beaten the American three times, including their only Grand Slam meeting at Roland Garros in 2025, plus meetings at the Laver Cup and the Canadian Open.

Tennis Australia’s new chief executive has suggested the sport should be open to major change, including the possibility of moving away from best-of-five Grand Slam matches and revisiting the scoring format.

Andrew Abdo, who recently replaced Craig Tiley, is already looking at ideas that could alter the shape of the Australian Open. Tiley has since become chief executive at the United States Tennis Association, while Abdo has inherited a tournament that set a new attendance mark in 2026, when more than 1.3 million people went through the gates.

The record crowd has not slowed his ambition. Abdo wants tennis to become Australia’s leading sport, and he believes that could happen within roughly five years. At present, Aussie Rules and Rugby League sit ahead of tennis in participation and popularity, but Abdo sees room for the order to change.

Questions around five-set tennis have been around for some time, largely because of the demands placed on players and fans. Abdo has now spoken publicly about exploring alternatives in order to broaden the game’s reach.

He told the Herald Sun, “Maybe in the future, slams at the different rounds or at different lengths of duration, you know, maybe we’re not playing best of five all the way through, maybe the point scoring system changes.

“Maybe there are different permutations to how we engage and entertain audiences without losing the fabric, and what really makes the sport special.

“I think those are the questions that we need to explore and discover, and I think there’s a place for evolving that. If you listen to the purists, they’ll say, ‘don’t touch that’.

“But actually… if you look at sports around the world, if you’re not thinking about that product in a way that’s contemporary, in a way that’s going to connect with young people, then I think you’re going to be left behind.”

His thinking aligns with comments made by Novak Djokovic in early August, when the 39-year-old called for tennis matches to be shortened and for the ‘advantage’ rule to go.

Abdo added, “There’s a lot to be proud of, but we can’t sit still. We’re No. 3 in Australia at the moment in terms of participation and I think we can get to No. 1 over the next five years.

“We have to be restless, we have to be curious and we have to find new ways to connect to audiences.

“In a couple of months’ time the AO27 will be the best grand slam that we’ve put on… and the vision we have to have is to be not only the best slam in the world, we want this to be one of the most iconic events in the world.”