Carlos Alcaraz Faces American Hopes at US Open

Carlos Alcaraz against the United States. That is what the next few days in New York threaten to become.

The defending US Open champion stands between a tennis‑hungry home crowd and something it has craved for more than two decades: a men’s singles champion wearing the Stars and Stripes. Not since Andy Roddick in 2003 has an American man lifted the trophy at Flushing Meadows. The wait has stretched to 23 years. The impatience inside Arthur Ashe Stadium is obvious.

Three American men are still alive in the draw – Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe and Alex Michelsen – and all of them are parked in Alcaraz’s half. If the Spaniard wants to keep his title, he may have to silence Ashe three times in a row.

Alcaraz walks into a hostile cauldron

On Tuesday, Alcaraz faces eighth seed Shelton in a quarter-final that feels bigger than its billing. The 21-year-old Spaniard, already a seven-time major winner, knows exactly what he is walking into.

He expects to face not just Shelton, but 24,000 New Yorkers roaring for the left-hander chasing his second US Open semi-final.

"I think he [will] use the crowd, the people behind him, especially when he's playing here at home," Alcaraz said, fully aware that Ashe can tilt a match on noise alone.

Shelton has never beaten Alcaraz. If he changes that on Tuesday night, the United States is guaranteed a finalist. The winner meets either Tiafoe or Michelsen in an all-American semi-final, or another collision between the home hopes and the Spaniard if Alcaraz advances again.

That is the knife-edge. If Alcaraz slices through this half of the draw, the American drought rolls on.

American men chase a ghost

Home players reaching the latter stages in New York is nothing new. Semi-final runs have come and gone. The problem has been the last step.

Since Roddick’s defeat to Roger Federer in the 2006 final, only Taylor Fritz has made it back to the title match, losing to Jannik Sinner two years ago. The pattern is brutal: promise, excitement, then a foreign champion holding the trophy.

Tiafoe has lived that frustration up close. Seeded 11th this fortnight, he lost to Fritz in that all-American semi-final and fell to Alcaraz at the same stage in 2022. Now 28, he is chasing a third shot at his first Grand Slam final.

His form says he is ready. Tiafoe reached the Cincinnati final last month and has ridden the New York energy like a wave ever since. Ask him what it feels like and the answer comes out in a rush.

"It's an out-of-body experience, no question. No real explaining that type of feeling.

"It's like you're not even touching the ground at one point. Energy is so high, and it seems like the level of play matches that."

Tiafoe plays to the crowd and the crowd plays back. He thrives in chaos.

Across the net from him, Michelsen brings something very different.

Michelsen steps into the light

At 22, ranked 46 in the world, Michelsen has crept through this US Open almost unnoticed. He has been happy with that. While Tiafoe, Shelton, Fritz and Tommy Paul soak up the interviews and the expectations, Michelsen has talked about flying "under the radar".

That anonymity is gone now.

He has reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final without dropping a set. The reward is a night on Ashe, the one court where there is nowhere to hide.

"First, second, third rounds, all matches I'm feeling nerves. It's a human experience," he admitted.

"But it's just about going out there and managing them to the best of my ability. I feel like I've done that very well."

Now comes the real test: managing them when 24,000 people are reacting to every breath.

A surge on both sides of the draw

The American revival in New York is not limited to the men. Six players from the United States – three men, three women – are in the quarter-finals, the highest total at the US Open since 2002.

On the women’s side, at least one home player is guaranteed to reach the semi-finals. Third seed Jessica Pegula meets Emma Navarro in an all-American clash on Tuesday, while Coco Gauff lurks on the other side of the draw with a chance to join them.

The contrast with the men’s long drought is stark. Gauff, now 22, is already hunting a second US Open crown after winning the title in 2023 as a teenager, the moment when years of hype finally met reality on the biggest court in the sport.

Pegula, 31, is still chasing her first major despite a steady stream of deep runs on the WTA Tour. She came closest here in 2024, when Aryna Sabalenka beat her in the final. Sabalenka also ended Navarro’s run in the semi-finals that same year.

Navarro, 25, has not been back to that stage of a Slam since. This season, she even stepped away from the tour for health reasons. Now she is back in New York, finding her game again, and finding her voice.

After beating Russian 21st seed Anna Kalinskaya on Ashe in the last 16, Navarro joked that she might have missed a trick.

"I should have talked to the crowd a little, asking them to come back and cheer me on for that match. I'm definitely going to need them," she said, already looking ahead to Pegula.

On Wednesday, Gauff faces Russian fifth seed Mirra Andreeva with the chance to turn one guaranteed American semi-finalist into two.

A nation’s hopes against one man’s empire

So the stage is set.

On one side, a host nation with three men clustered around the same dream, and three women pushing deep into the second week. On the other, Carlos Alcaraz, already a serial champion, striding into a stadium that will roar against him with every American winner, every clenched fist, every service bomb from Shelton.

If he runs the gauntlet and reaches the final again, the men’s wait will stretch into a 24th year. If the crowd finally carries one of their own past him, Flushing Meadows might just explode.

Which story will New York choose to write?