The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 U.S. Open. NEW YORK — A year ago, Carlos Alcaraz showed up at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center with a buzz cut and a rocketing serve, unlike any arrow he had ever had in his quiver before.He lost three service games in seven matches, and won the U.S. Open men’s title.No one ever had a chance.This year, he has shaggy mane and uses a thin headband to keep it all under control, plus a serve that is nowhere near as potent as it was 12 months ago.That’s OK. In the absence of the 132 mph blasts and the sidewinding aces, a subtler but no less devastating arrow is doing its work.A player has a ball in his hand. Alcaraz is across the net, waiting. For once, on a tennis court, the odds are against him. In men’s tennis, before even hitting the ball, the server has around a 66 percent chance of winning the point.Alcaraz tightens those odds, however, because he gets many first serves back into play and wins many of the points when he does.“I’m trying to make them think a little bit,” he said after befuddling Tommy Paul in the fourth round Monday. By the middle of a 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 win, Alcaraz’s returns had Paul stutter-stepping backward on many of his serve points.Alcaraz created 14 break points. He only needed to convert four to make the win comfortable.Now comes Alcaraz’s biggest test yet in this tournament: Ben Shelton, Tuesday night, in Arthur Ashe Stadium.This is one of those bright-lights, New York events, featuring perhaps the flashiest, most naturally gifted player the sport has ever seen against the most exuberant and, at this moment, most realistic U.S. hope for glory.Shelton combines college-tennis exuberance with the explosiveness of a superstar from a football field or a basketball court. He is the top-ranked American, yet still has so much to prove, especially against the best of the best on the biggest stage in the game — at his home Grand Slam.Alcaraz, 23, has already won seven Grand Slam tournaments. He is the youngest man to win all four. He will relish every moment in Tuesday’s contest, and not just because it’s what he lives for.12 months ago, Alcaraz’s serve was among his most commanding assets. This U.S. Open, it has been functional but less dominant. (Jeff Dean / USTA via Getty Images)He is also returning from a wrist injury, one of the most dangerous and dreaded a player can have. Somehow, after five months away, he has turned this U.S. Open, which was supposed to be a referendum on his readiness for tennis, into just another tournament in just another year.“Excited for the battle,” Shelton said in a news conference after he had pummeled a resurgent Stefanos Tsitsipas in the fourth round Sunday night.“Never played him here in New York, and obviously in the position that I want to be in.”The 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 win was Shelton’s most complete and focused performance of the tournament.Against Tsitsipas, Shelton smacked 12 aces, won 84 percent of his first-serve points and never faced a break point.It’s not quite Pete Sampras vs. Andre Agassi. But Shelton will bring a cannon capable of cracking 150 mph, plus a nasty left-handed kicker and a growing array of point-starting weapons. Alcaraz will bring the timing, precision, dexterity and potency to try to neutralize them.Shelton knows as well as anyone what he is up against. He hasn’t beaten Alcaraz in three tries, the last at the 2025 French Open, where he lost in four sets. He practiced with Alcaraz ahead of this tournament.