It proved to be a fitting conclusion to the Women's tournament at the US Open as Elena Rybakina overwhelmed Aryna Sabalenka in the third set meaning the new World Number 1 is holding two Grand Slams from a fruitful 2026 season.
Beating Sabalenka to end her runs of successes in both Melbourne and New York City means Elena Rybakina can move into the top spot in the World Rankings with the full belief that she is the best player in the world.
Three Grand Slams have now been secured and Elena Rybakina has the potential to win many more, although the finel margins of her tennis means she can be vulnerable to upsets as proved to be the case at Wimbledon.
Despite that, Elena Rybakina is likely to enter three of the four Grand Slams to be played in the 2027 season as the favourite and she will have gained a lot of confidence from her year.
Of course it is not quite over with the swing through Asia followed by the WTA Finals and so there are still big prizes to be won and the end of year World Number 1 spot to be decided.
Before all of that, the US Open has to be completed in the Men's Singles Final and it looks a good one on paper.
It would be really good for American Tennis if Ben Shelton can win, and he is definitely the more likeable of the two competing, but Alexander Zverev has won a Grand Slam to break his duck and looks to be the right favourite.
Alexander Zverev - 1.5 games v Ben Shelton: The top Seed in the draw is looking for a second Grand Slam title in 2026 and he will also be looking to close out home hopes of seeing a first American male player win a Major since Andy Roddick did it right here at the US Open in 2003.
The Big Three had dominated the Grand Slams in that time, but American tennis has missed having a top player competing with those players since Andy Roddick retired and so there is plenty of pressure on Ben Shelton to end that long wait.
He is playing well enough to believe he can win the title here on Sunday, but Ben Shelton is going to be tested by the occasion and also has a really poor record against Alexander Zverev.
Losing all five Tour matches against this opponent is one thing, but losing as convincingly as he has and as often as he has makes this even tougher for Ben Shelton.
So not only is he trying to snap a long barren run for American tennis in the men's tournament, but Ben Shelton has to show how much he has developed since the losses have piled up against Alexander Zverev. None of those defeats have been this year, which will at least give Shelton the belief that he has grown so far to close the gap, but four of the defeats were in matches played in 2025 and the last two were on the hard courts.
Ben Shelton has improved on his returning part of his tennis, and that is going to be tested on Sunday.
In the five previous matches against Alexander Zverev, Ben Shelton has broken serve in less than 2% of return games played and that number becomes 3% when only factoring in the three previous hard court matches.
Not only has he only broken the Zverev serve once, but Ben Shelton has only forced a single Break Point in the last four matches and the top Seed has been moving through the Rounds thanks to the pressure exerted by the serve.
This could be key again in this US Open Final, especially as Alexander Zverev has found a way to get into return games against Ben Shelton and the French Open Champion looks the most likely winner in this match.
Alexander Zverev's overall performance in the Semi Final win over Karen Khachanov was not the most convincing, but he will feel relatively comfortable in the match up and it is all about managing the nerves.
If he can do that, Alexander Zverev can win another Grand Slam title, although a win for Ben Shelton may be great news for the sport as a whole.
MY PICK: Alexander Zverev - 1.5 Games @ 1.85 William Hill (2 Units)
US Open Update: 33-22, + 8.60 Units (110 Units Staked, + 7.82% Yield)
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