Alexander Zverev failed to realise he had just won the US Open after becoming a two-time grand slam champion in New York.
The German would have perhaps expected a muted reaction to his winning moment as he was facing the home hope Ben Shelton in the final.
But the 29-year-old lost track of the score because when Shelton put his return long on Championship point, Zverev barely responded.
HE DIDN'T REALIZE HE'D WON 🏆
Alexander Zverev exorcises his 2020 demons and defeats Shelton 6-3, 7-6, 5-7, 6-2 to win his first US Open title! pic.twitter.com/f0Cnl2xvgI
Instead, the top seed thought there was another game to come because he had already hit the balls to the other end of the court in preparing to receive.
It wasn’t until Zverev looked up to the scoreboard and the upper deck of the Arthur Ashe Stadium for him to realise he was the champion.
But there was no falling onto his back as, in one of the strangests grand slam title victories of all time, Zverev belatedly burst into a wide smile.
“I thought it was 5-1!” he later told Sky Sports. “I knew I had broke twice, he had only held once so like it's 5-1.
“I thought, OK, I'm gonna have a relaxed service game here and then I'm gonna get tight on the next one.
“It's actually funny. Tennis teachers always tell you just play each point, to forget about the score. From that moment I forgot about the score, it helped me.”
Zverev will pocked $5.5m in prize money by winning the US Open title while victory will also exorcise some of the demons from his previous US Open final appearance in 2020.
Six years ago, Zverev served for the Championship against Dominic Thiem, but lost from two sets up in a brutal collapse.
Perhaps not realising the score helped Zverev as he produced a masterclass in the fourth set to repel Shelton’s comeback after the young American finally arrived in the final.
The 23-year-old Shelton overcame a very nervy start and threatened a comeback when he broke his opponent for the first time late in the third set and force the fourth.
But Zverev immediately pounced to claim the opening break before serving out a 6-3, 7-6 (7-2), 5-7, 6-2 victory for his sixth consecutive win against the world No 9.
Zverev won his first grand slam title in June at the French Open and also reached the Wimbledon final in July in what is by far the best season of his career.
He is now just the fourth man in the Open era to win his first two grand slam titles in the same year and aiming for the year-end world No 1 is now a realistic target.
This has been Zverev’s year at the grand slams after Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner dominated the men’s game and swept the biggest titles in 2024 and 2025.
He has taken advantage of spells of injury from both Alcaraz and Sinner and has not had to beat either player in 2026 to become a two-time grand slam winner.
It was not all smooth sailing for Zverev, though; far from it when he was taking on the partisan US Open crowd as well as home favourite Shelton.
Zverev faced jeers due to the slow pace of his service play and he was finally given a time violation from the chair umpire Marijana Veljovic in the fourth set.
Zverev’s incessant bouncing of the ball before his serve was a talking point before the final after his semi-final opponent complained about the time he would take during serves.
The stats showed Zverev spent around three hours of his 23-plus hours on court this fortnight bouncing the ball between serves.
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