The last few matches of the US Open men’s singles draw are setting up nicely for tennis fans.
World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz steamrolled No. 12 seed Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday night to set up a semifinal clash with No. 3 seed Daniil Medvedev. On the other side of the bracket, 22-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic will face unseeded Ben Shelton after the latter’s upset of Francis Tiafoe in the quarterfinals.
So the final Grand Slam of the season will come down to the three best players in tennis, who have all won the event in the last five years, and a 20-year-old underdog who turned pro 13 months ago.
BetMGM has Djokovic as the favorite to win the tournament at -135 odds, with Alcaraz at +120, Medvedev at +900 and Shelton at +2800.
Alcaraz has looked more dominant than ever in New York, having dropped only one set in five matches so far. That continued against Zverev, an elite returner who broke Alcaraz zero times in five break points. The defending US Open champ was aggressive at the net, winning 28-of-35 points up close and showing the kind of court coverage that makes him live in opponents’ nightmares.
This will be the fourth time Alcaraz has faced Medvedev in an ATP event, and the third time this season. Alcaraz beat the Russian in straight sets in both the final at Indian Wells and the semifinal at Wimbledon, never losing more than three games in each of the five sets. Medvedev will be looking to reverse that dominance.
Djokovic, who missed last year’s US Open due to his refusal to get vaccinated, has never faced Shelton, the NCAA champ in men’s singles last year. He is 2-2 against Alcaraz, with a win in the semifinal of this year’s French Open and a loss in the Wimbledon final, and 9-5 against Medvedev, who beat the Serbian in the 2021 US Open final but has lost four of his last five matches against him.
The semifinal matches are scheduled for Friday, with the times currently TBD.