At the 2016 US Open, the triumph of Alexander Zverev will come down. He grumbles with someone across the street.
Germany defeated Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6, 5-7, 6-2 on Sunday to capture his second career Grand Slam title, a few months after his first such trophy at Roland-Garros. It was a remarkable feat, especially as Shelton managed to break the set just once across four sets.
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Their serve has upset many opponents this tournament, but not just because of the 130-plus mph speeds and swings that often follow it. It was also like the other day.
Throughout the tournament, Zverev kept his opponents in an indefinite stalemate with his server. From the 25 second case the clock is exactly between the points, but no such method serves as a secondary.
So Zverev seems to be the ball up 10 times in each and every second serve. Sometimes more than 20 times. She disturbed the opponents, the crowd and the shooters, with everyone speculating what might become of her.
That includes Shelton, who suggested a second term while talking to reporters after the match;
“For the first serve you have to do what you want and use every time 25 full seconds. I think there is some rule – I don’t know exactly how to do it – limiting the time of the second serve. You don’t have to have an infinite time. For the game, for the fans. I think it is difficult to sit at that time in the second action.
“Yes, I’m sure at some point there will be something that looks at these things because of the fact that there is such a delay in the game in some matches.”
The heavy ball was directed at one point in Sunday’s meeting. The referee’s chair gave Zverev time for a violation in the fourth after such a delay, that Arthur Ashe in great joy of the crowd of the Stadium. Zverev appeared to argue that he expected the crowd, which was clearly partial to Shelton, to sit down.
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Karen Khachanov, Zverev’s semifinal opponent, had a similar outcome when the ball rebounded in her match, but it was allowed within the rules:
“The way he bounces the ball, look, it offends not only me, of course, but a lot of players, because it takes so much time. You don’t know how to prepare the serve. You’re ready, and another 12 rebounds.”
“Every point is like that. At the end of the day, if it’s within the rules with the time between the points, I can’t say anything against it, because it’s within the rules. If he extends the time, he gets a time violation, so it’s pretty simple.”
This stuff with Zverev isn’t particularly new — you can see him serve the ball 12 times before the first second at this 2026 Australian Open — but the number of cashes definitely seemed to be increasing in this tournament. Also, the type of scrutiny players start experiencing once they become multi-time Grand Slam champions.
For his part, Zverev insisted that he was not trying to reach a certain number and said that he would minimize the matter when speaking to reporters after the semifinal:
“I’m not counting in my head. I’m not getting a certain number or anything like that. I don’t know why it’s increased so much.
Today he decided again, because I saw before the semifinals so I was like, ‘Okay, I have to go less’, but then once in a while I forget about it and it goes up. I don’t know what the number is.
Whatever the case of the ball projection, 2026 stands to be the career season for Zverev. He entered the year as the consensus best player to never win a Grand Slam and went 25-2 in Grand Slams that year, losing only to Carlos Alcaraz (Australian Open semifinal) and Jannik Sinner (Wimbledon final).
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Questions remain about his ability to beat the new duopoly of modern tennis, but it’s clear that his legacy has changed this year.