US Open 2026 Recap: Zverev & Rybakina Win, What's Next for American Tennis?

Four Americans reached the singles semifinals at the U.S. Open, but the trophies went home with Alexander Zverev and Elena Rybakina. Zverev denied Ben Shelton in the men's final, while Rybakina topped Irina Sabalenka to leave New York with her first U.S. Open title and the world number one ranking. So, what separated the champions and how close are the Americans to taking that next step in the sport of tennis? Joining me to break it all down is the host of Tune into Tennis with Myles David. My guy, Myles David, joins me now. Myles, what's going on, my guy? Trying to process an interesting U.S. Open final weekend. Glad to be back to talk tennis with you, my guy. No, man, it's been good talking to you over these last couple of weeks, and yeah, I think a lot of American tennis fans in particular are definitely trying to process what happened here. So, let's start with the men's side, what we saw on Sunday. Alexander Zverev, he beats Ben Shelton in four sets to win the men's title. What separated the two players in this finals, and where does Zverev make Shelton most uncomfortable here? I think a lot of it had to do with maybe not so much the X's and O's and the tactics, but Zverev having been in that occasion before this year at the French Open in Wimbledon, and obviously in years past, and although Ben is a hell of a competitor, I think we kind of saw the moment trying to just teeter in his head a little bit, especially in those first two sets. He did a great job to kind of ask the question of Alexander Zverev, can you keep holding serve, and ultimately he got that third set off of Zverev, but the thing that really separates Zverev from Shelton is the ability to kind of do the ground strokes in, point in, point out, not that Ben is bad from the back of the court, but Zverev has him on the edge of just simply putting that extra ball in, and Shelton can cough up a few errors, and especially in that fourth set, it was too many errors off of his racket, and he sees Zverev holding his first U.S. Open trophy now because of it. Now we saw that, when we look at this with Shelton, Miles, what did this run to his first Grand Slam final, what did that reveal about how far his game has come, and what's the next adjustment that can help him finally win one of these? I think if you look at a picture or a video of Ben Shelton competing in the U.S. Open semifinals in 2023, and put it up against a video of him competing in this year's U.S. Open 2026, I think it's very clear to see the evolution of a tennis player and a better tennis player. There are some rungs still on the ladder that he can go up on, but just to get to his first Grand Slam final and beat Carlos Alvarez in the process in a very memorable fifth set, I feel like that is a step in the right direction. He'll probably be kind of sulking, he looked like he was trying to process the difficult frustration in the trophy presentation, but I do think if he takes a step away from that disappointment, it is net positive, especially when you can leave the New York crowd with a lot to remember, and also leave the U.S. Open with your best win of your career over Carlos Alvarez, you know? Yes, no doubt he had that best win of his career over Alvarez there. Let's look on the women's side, because Elena Rabakina, she leaves here in New York City with her first U.S. Open title, also number one ranking. What was the difference for her against Irina Sabalenka, and what would make you say or believe that she can stay on top here right now? I think for Rabakina, she kind of just has to keep on doing what she's doing. I have no idea where the reports came from or stemmed from that post Cincinnati and going into the U.S. Open that she was having difficulty walking, because although her last three rounds of the U.S. Open quarters, semis, and finals all went three sets, she stood the test. So her body seems to be in pretty decent enough shape, and her willingness to go deep in matches seems to be right there as well. So she kind of has to just keep doing what she's doing, because I kid you not, there were a bunch of moments in that final where she even took the racket out of Sabalenka's hands, and that's usually what Sabalenka does to her opponent. So if Rabakina can be doing that to one of her best rivals on Sunday at a Grand Slam final, then the rest of the women on tour are going to be kind of looking up at her to see if they can grab that world number one ranking, and kind of just best player at their best on tour right now. Yeah, a lot of people, she put a lot of people on notice, is what I might say here at this U.S. Open. Let's go back to the semis on the women's side, where we saw Coco Gauff, she won the opening set against Rabakina before losing in three. Where did that semifinal turn for Coco, and what should she take from that match about how to play Rabakina the next time she faces off against her? You know, one of the things I remember from Rabakina's post-match on-court chat was that she really had high praise for Coco, and yes, the fact that Coco was kind of giving her a couple of free unforced errors off the forehand, and maybe not as potent off of her first serve, and getting as many in. She did say, even if she misses it, Coco Gauff puts in a very heavy second serve, and I feel like that's pretty high praise from one of the best women's, if not the best women's server on tour right now. It's just that in tight moments, Coco Gauff's forehand was proven in that match to still be a little shaky. It wasn't so much as the serve, because the serve has held up for the past couple of months now, but that forehand and the ability, and maybe her inability, Coco Gauff, to kind of hit the same forehand the way several different times in a row. Sometimes she can be very tentative and not really know which way she wants to hit the forehand. Does she want to loop it? Does she want to drive it? Does she want to kind of slice and dink it? She has those options, but trying to figure out which one gets her the best percentage of winning the point kind of got her flummoxed in that match against Rabakina, and Rabakina just played very well. Yes, she did that for sure. We'll see how Coco rebounds from that loss there in the semis, and Miles, you know, there's four Americans. We saw two men, two women reach the single semifinals, but nobody left with the trophy on the American side. When you look at the tournament as a whole, does this feel like progress for American tennis, or was it a missed opportunity here? It feels like progress in some ways, because if you look at the last three ATP finals, they featured two Americans in Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton now, so I do think that's net positive, because we went before 2024 a whole decade and some change without an American man even reaching a final, so you do want to take away from that and saying, hey, we're headed in the right direction. It's just that unfortunately for men's tennis right now, it's either a trophy lift or nothing for a lot of different people, and we're still just a couple of meters away, I feel like, from being able to leave a grand slam with the trophy, because there's so many men, in addition to Carlos Alvarez and Yannick Sinner, now Alexander Zverev, who now have the pedigree of knowing what it feels like to win a U.S. Open, win a grand slam, and the confidence on the court to do it, the American men are still trying to kind of match the belief with the expectation, if that makes any sense. There's a little bit of disconnect. There's still great talent on the men's field. I just kind of want to see them be able to be comfortable in the biggest moments and go for it, you know? Yeah, no, I do agree with that, right? You do want to see that belief match expectation. I haven't seen that happen yet for the American men, and American women definitely have some promise as well, too, with Cocoa Golf, Jessica Gula, who reached the semis as well. Let's close with this, Miles. Which American leaves New York with your expectations raised here the most, and what would you need to see in 2027 to say that this tournament was a building block for American I mean, I think for Cocoa Golf, it's a pretty leave-your-head-high kind of tournament. Yeah, you didn't win it, but that's her second grand slam semifinal in a row, and yeah, this is her season where she didn't lift the grand slam trophy, but there were great building blocks to go towards a better 2027. For Jessica, for Gula, you kind of say, you know, tip your hat at the performance that Sabalenka had against her, but in 2027, for a woman that's been so pretty much every rung of the WTA Tour except the slams, kind of similar situation to her specific scenario as it is to the men. It's either put your hands on a grand slam trophy one day or kind of just be known as the almost player, and on the men's side, I do think it is building blocks for even better 2027 for Ben Shelton because the first three grand slams of this season were a little wishy-washy, especially if you look into consideration they didn't have to center and didn't even get deep in those tournaments. Here he did, and he beat Carlos Alvarez. It's debatable that Carlos Alvarez wasn't at his best. We all know that, but he still has a win that he cannot just build on, so I think this puts him in a good position for 2027, and for the semifinal opponent, for Francis Seapo, you know, losing that semifinal, his third opportunity to go for a final on a double fault was probably hard to swallow, but I still do think all things encompass. These are good building blocks for 2027 if they try to match the belief with the performance like I said earlier. It'll be interesting to see where American tennis goes from here, but an unbelievable two-plus weeks with the U.S. Open here in New York City, and it was a great time talking with my guy Miles David about it. Check out his show, Tuned into Tennis' YouTube channel. I should say Tuned into Tennis with Miles David is a fantastic one covering all tennis. Hard court season coming to a close. We're going to have a lot to talk about in 2027 around the tennis action. Miles, I appreciate it, man. We got to do this again soon. We have to do it. Before you know it, we'll be down in Melbourne, so it's always a good time talking to you. Oh, I didn't know you. You said you will be down. I didn't know we were gone. We got to make that trip, man. That's going to be good. We got to make the trip. Hey, if we're not there physically, we'll be there in spirit. I always have my tennis takes. There we go. We'll do it again soon. Thank you, my friend. Appreciate it.