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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 32
Ben Shelton vs 
Denis Shapovalov
Round of 32
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Ben Shelton to advance · locked 2026-09-02 23:55 UTCPrediction
Two left-handers, and one of them has won all four of their meetings. Shelton is the eighth seed, ranked ninth, 34-14 for the season and a US Open semi-finalist at 20; he has now dropped the opening set in both his matches here and won them both anyway, beating Tallon Griekspoor in four and then Hubert Hurkacz 6-3 5-7 7-6(3) 7-5 in 3 hours 24 minutes, breaking the Pole as he served to stay in it. Shapovalov is 27, ranked 48th, 15-18 for the season, and has just played his cleanest match in months: a bagel to open, 50 winners to 19, seven break points converted from nine, and a third-set tiebreak taken 9-7 against Luca Van Assche. Their history is unhelpfully one-sided. Shelton won at Wimbledon in five, in Washington by retirement, in Shanghai in straights, and in the Dallas semi-final in February on a 7-6(4) in the third. That last one is the reason the number below is 80 and not higher: the most recent meeting was a set from going the other way.
The case for Ben Shelton
80% to winFour wins from four, a semi-final here at 20, and the biggest left-handed serve in the game. Shelton has already been taken to four sets twice this week and won both, which is the useful kind of practice; he is 34-14 for the season against Shapovalov's 15-18, and 39 ranking places clear. He also does not need his best tennis to beat this opponent — he has never had to produce it.
The case for Denis Shapovalov
20% to winShapovalov played his best match in a year on Wednesday: 50 winners, seven of nine break points taken, and a bagel against a man who had just beaten the 29th seed. He took Shelton to a third-set tiebreak in Dallas seven months ago, so the head-to-head is closer than 4-0 makes it look. He is also a former US Open quarter-finalist, and a left-hander who has spent his career solving other left-handers' serves.
Both cases written 2026-09-02, before the first ball — frozen into the record exactly as written, whatever the result. The percentages are mine — opinions with a percent sign on. They add to 100 because tennis has no draw to hide the rounding in.
Tale of the tape
Ben SheltonDenis ShapovalovPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-09-02.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-02.
The briefing
Storylines
- Both men are left-handed; it is the only all-left-handed match in the men's third round.
- Shelton leads the head-to-head 4-0, but their most recent meeting went to a third-set tiebreak.
- Shelton has dropped the opening set in both his matches here and won both.
- Shapovalov opened his second round with a 6-0 set and hit 50 winners to 19.
- Shelton reached the US Open semi-finals in 2023; Shapovalov the quarter-finals in 2020.
Head to head
Shelton leads 4-0: Wimbledon in 2024 in five sets, Washington in July 2024 (Shapovalov retired at 7-6(5) 6-6), Shanghai 6-3 7-5 that October, and the Dallas semi-final in February, 4-6 6-4 7-6(4).
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-02.
Watch: Third-round coverage runs across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, with ESPN Deportes in Spanish — and every court streams in the ESPN app, which is where a match away from the two show courts will live. (ESPN press-room release and listings, as of 2026-08-27)
Court & schedule: Not yet assigned. The US Open posts each day's order of play the evening before, and this match has not reached the board yet. (Official US Open order-of-play release cadence, as of 2026-09-02)
Weather: Wednesday night is wet: showers and thunderstorms likely at 64% on a low near 72°F, which is the night session's problem and the roofs' answer. Thursday stays unsettled — 83°F, showers and thunderstorms likely, again at 64% — and eases to 33% overnight. Friday improves without quite clearing: mostly sunny and 82°F, with a slight shower chance at 23%. Saturday is the clean day, sunny and 78°F on 2%, and Sunday is sunny at 74°F. Ashe and Armstrong close their roofs and play on; everything else waits. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-09-02)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.
At this Stage
The Round of 32 is the third round, and the last one before a Grand Slam draw becomes a small tournament: sixteen men's matches across Friday and Saturday leave sixteen players standing, every one of them having won twice on these courts. This is the round where the seeding chart stops doing any work — from here on, whoever is left is who you play.
