NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The late-night action at the U.S. Open has now reached an extreme.<\/p>\n
Ben Shelton’s five-set thriller<\/a> to beat reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> in the quarterfinals ended at 3:33 a.m. Wednesday, leaving few people awake to see the 4 1\/2-hour marathon reach its finale on one of the sport’s biggest stages. That only added to the list of early-morning finishes that had already stirred frustration and concerns<\/a> about how organizers were managing the schedule at the Grand Slam event with numerous matches straying well past night-owl hours.<\/p>\n Players have long loved the electricity of playing night matches under the lights in the nation\u2019s biggest city. But the tournament had already set a record with three post-2 a.m. finishes over the first six days, as well as having two other matches go past 1 a.m.<\/p>\n That had included Venus Williams being subjected<\/a> to the latest start in U.S. Open history at 12:13 a.m., after it took 4 hours, 36 minutes for Novak Djokovic to get knocked out<\/a> in the first round.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s not ideal,\u201d Williams said at the time.<\/p>\n Shelton himself had a four-set second-round win against Denis Shapovalov<\/a> that ended at 2:07 a.m.<\/p>\n Then came Tuesday night \u2014 well, Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n Shelton, a 23-year-old from Atlanta seeded No. 8, earned a massive win in his young career to reach his third major semifinal by taking down the second-seeded Alcaraz 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7). He closed the fifth-set tiebreak with a 146-mph ace and ended the reigning champion’s 18-match winning streak in Grand Slam tournaments.<\/p>\n It ended with Arthur Ashe Stadium perhaps one-third full at what became the latest-finishing match in U.S. Open<\/a> history.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to break the record,” TV announcer John McEnroe said. “It\u2019s going to be the latest finish in U.S. Open history, and we are here to witness it.\u201d<\/p>\n This one set up an all-American semifinal matchup with 11th-seeded Frances Tiafoe<\/a>, with the U.S. guaranteed to have a representative in Sunday’s final as it seeks its first major men’s title since Andy Roddick won at Flushing Meadows in 2003.<\/p>\n About 5 1\/2 hours after the match’s conclusion, the U.S. Open went to social media with a lighthearted nod to the late night, offering a fill-in-the-blank letter for fans<\/a> to ask their bosses to be excused from work Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe understand how important showing up is, but sometimes you have to make time for things you\u2019re passionate about,\u201d the post on X stated. \u201cCarlos Alcaraz and Ben Shelton put on an absolute stellar performance during their US Open quarterfinal, and ______ was a fully committed fan who was completely locked in from start to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n