NEW YORK — Ben Shelton and Carlos Alcaraz didn’t really play a tennis match overnight Tuesday into Wednesday morning at the U.S. Open, as they set a record for the latest finish in tournament history.Sure, there were rackets and balls and deuces and ads, but those were mere details. This was a heavyweight prize fight between two of the biggest stars in the sport, an American athletic acrobat of the highest order, and an artist in the sweet science of the game, capable of playing a version of tennis familiar to no one else.Styles make fights. So do personalities who love nothing more than performing on the biggest and brightest stages. After a day filled with drama, the two biggest characters in the tournament finally hit the first ball at 11:05 p.m. ET, on par with a pay-per-view main event. Nearly 24,000 people, in a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium, settled in to watch the fight — or at least the start of it.When the end came, at 3:33 a.m., it was Shelton roaring to the faithful who had stayed behind, with a 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(10-7) win sealed by a 146 mph ace. It ended on his signature, the shot that he could always rely on but that had never taken him past a player of Alcaraz’s gravity.“That was a war. Epic match. So physical,” Shelton said. He added: “Carlos, one of the greatest champions in our sport already at 23 years old. It’s always fun.”“The most enjoyable match I’ve had in my career,” he said.It began like it was supposed to, with Shelton and Alcaraz throwing haymakers at each other but unable to put together enough combinations to do any lasting damage. Then the thing happened that seemingly always does with Alcaraz, or really his opponent.At 5-5, with Shelton matching a slightly loose version of the seven-time Grand Slam champion shot for shot, all it took was a couple of loose strokes, a missed first serve or two, and Alcaraz had the break he needed.Then Shelton broke right back, an unusual circumstance for Alcaraz, who shanked two forehands far off the court. He’s been out nearly five months with a wrist injury. From anyone else, that would be normal. From Alcaraz, who had found his groove over his first four matches, it was odd.The tiebreak saw them trade mistakes, punctuated by a jaw-dropping point of lunging, acrobatic improvisation that Shelton won with a deft lob that sent Alcaraz sliding with his back to the net.But with Shelton holding a 5-3 edge, Alcaraz went on one of his soul-crushing runs.He rushed Shelton into a miss on a routine backhand, followed a sideline-breaking backhand with a forehand into the open court, smacked a bullet forehand down the line, and then finished the set with one of those wild all-court points. A slick reflex lob, an outrageous tweener save by Shelton. It merely staved off another trap. First set Alcaraz.He had his cross to the jaw. All that hard work Shelton had put in for more than an hour, and he had nothing to show for it, just like so many of his recent meetings against Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.