2026 US OPEN MEN’S FINAL RECAP: Zverev Wins 2026 US Open, Shelton’s First Major Final & More

I have my dream job, but even dream jobs have not so dreamy parts. That's where ServiceNow's AI Specialist come in. They don't just tell you what to do about your busy work, they actually do it. That way your team can focus on what matters. To learn how to put AI to work for people, visit ServiceNow.com. Hey everyone, this is QuickSurf, presented by ServiceNow. Guys, this is the last time. This is the last time at Cadillac Studio. And I respectfully thank you. Yeah, and this is the last time I'm going to say it has AKG Studio Reference Sound System with Dolby Atmos, where you can clearly hear music from where I am in its iconic lyrics, which say, "What are you going to do with all that junk? All that junk inside your trunk?" Which if you're watching, you can see we have a bunch of junk inside our trunk. And in our front trunk, because we're able to fit four adults. Plus Rob. And their luggage inside this four adult plus Rob, like he's a child. Well, his luggage is in here, but we have four adults, their luggage. I'm not starting to tell. I wasn't finished. Right. But we have three weeks worth of luggage. Plus Tekki Shana and his DJ booth and his trans-mographer. And we can fit it all in this expansive Cadillac escalating IQ. Yeah. So. I didn't think we were going to get a black eyed face first. I got a black eyed face. I didn't think that was going to. Thank you. I got you love drunk off my. Okay. Well, that wasn't a truck. Yeah. Um. It's very. I know. So what if I would have told you at the beginning of the year? Right. What if I would have told you. Sobelenka doesn't win a major. Shfion tak doesn't win a major. Coco doesn't win a major. Wow. Sinner and Algras don't play in a major. Don't play each other. Don't play each other in a major. Yeah. Sorry. Don't play against each other in a major. There's a very real chance that neither one finishes number one in the world. That's a crazy statement. And it's fair of wins two majors. That's why we play him, guys. That's why sports. It's an ultimate reality show. I mean, if you had said it's fair of made was going to make four semi finals in two finals. Like what are you talking about? He had never made a pass the fourth round of Wibbelen. Like this is like. And he said he came to the SPN said and he said he told me off air and then we went on air and he said the same thing. He said if you would have given me the choice and a piece of paper to sign and you get one forever. He goes I would have taken that in a heartbeat at any point in the last. However many years. Yeah. Like no questions asked. Yeah. Um. Gets through against Ben Shelton who had a hell of a tournament. I thought the two speeches after the tennis were just about perfect. I thought they accounted for themselves so well during the post match speeches. I thought the respect between the two was evident. I also really, really liked and I think it's the first time I've seen it. I liked Zverev going over and shaking the hands of Ben's team. I thought that was cool. I thought that was classy. I thought that was nice. Um. But I you know I think it was just. There's a lot to unpack with this performance of the match in the tournament overall. Was there of and then you know we we we pan out. To the kind of. Career perspective. Um. He was two points away from losing first round. Yeah. And then barely one has second round. It's all at least. Yeah. Survive advance. That matters. Every time you sneak through a match and you play like shit. Which by his own admission, he played like shit. For his standard, not like everyone standard, but for his standard. You give yourself another another chance to play well. Like that. That is a lesson for him from this openness for amongst many other things. And for someone who we don't like. Saba like it comes on the desk last week right at red zone. And starts predicting serves from and and hits most of them like four for four crazy. For someone who we don't give credit for being like a strategist or like this. He's always thinking or the IQ or like all that. It's not like a. It's not a set in stone narrative for for his. His game plan and his execution in this match. Or perfect. Perfect. Where he served, how he played, what he got through the middle. The forehand which has taken a lot of shit over the years. Was perfect. The soft ones, the roller ones, cross court. And then every single time he went line. It was with emphasis. So he's then had to cover the line because he was going big line. And then that opened up the soft stuff to Ben. He didn't handle for the first two sets, made the adjustment step back. But then you know Sasha said on the desk also he's like you don't have to play big to Ben. Now if you if you don't set the table and then you play soft, Ben will kill you. But like you have to you have to do one thing in order to get what you want. It's like a pitcher. You have to establish a pitch in order to have a strikeout pitch. Like it was a brilliant brilliant brilliant execution of a perfect game plan. Do you think you know that there's the adogen sports right? Like where everyone's like just play your game, just play your game right. And ultimately he came and seemed to you called it. You're right. He was going to sit seven feet back behind the baseline. He was going to sit in the middle. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But he was going to sit in the middle and he was going to distribute how he wanted to set up. Yeah. Everything. I mean, would you say he took what Ben was giving him. But really he played his game and got Ben to have to react to him. What he did perfectly was he asked the question to Ben. Okay, when you're going to be aggressive. Can I make you do it from the weakest side the most often? Got it. Right. So I'm giving you and I was someone who had a hard time creating pace up my back end. Right. But it was easier for me to create pace if someone went big into my back end because I could use their pace. Now, if you put one high up on my back end, I would kind of shove it. Right. Then we'll improve. His back end has improved 100% from three years ago. So he will get there. But right now, if you give him soft stuff and it's above his shoulder in the back end, it feels like a little bit of a force. Okay. You can only get there if he's scared of you going aggressive to his forehand. Then the soft stuff works. If you don't establish that shot line, which they did. Whenever he went line, he went big line. You don't establish that. He runs around the soft stuff every time. Got him. He has to respect this side. So therefore, he creates an opening on the other side. And I thought it's very, I did it perfectly. He had held 66 straight times before getting broken in the third set. But just, and it's funny because we talk about all we want. Oh, that's cool. Yankee Stadium. Oh, yeah. Parks of doing a show in a car. Yeah. We talked at nausea and everyone's like, well, he needs it. He needs to step inside the baseline and hit forehand. I was in the extreme minority of like, I don't know that his stroke production allows that. Are you going to reconfigure his entire forehand? You know, and I think what he figured out was I can take my shots if I establish where I pattern. So he went big line, but it wasn't like, I'm just going to hit big forehand. It was, it was, it was timely, right? He didn't hit all forehands big. In fact, he almost laid off one of them. But it was the right pace and the right mindset and the right level of aggression on the right shot. Which is the one he needed to bruise Ben to kind of set up his base game. You know, and I know everyone is going to say like, it's the news there. And he's playing better than I listen. He was a great player before Roland Garros who had mental demons about finishing and winning a grand slam. That's it. He hasn't changed everything. He talked about being freer, Wimbledon and being freer here. I mean, can you imagine going into this if he had never won one and lost a Wimbledon final? I mean, lost a Wimbledon Garros final? I don't know if he makes it to the final because he had so many tough matches. Like he said, he started to creep in. He said I've never had more fun playing tennis. Right, so to go into that venue and the other thing I, he did, which I thought was like incredibly smart. There was no gesturing to his box. There was no complaining to his box. Which he, like, weak one, he was chippy. Like, he was looking really chippy and he wasn't playing well. So like, yeah, water's wet, right? But he was super chippy. There was no positive emotion. He'd win a point head down. He was like the energy vampire for Arthur. Dude, he literally didn't know he had won. Okay, that's it for another, that's for another time. But like, well, I'm just saying that's how that, that's how doubt anyone. I asked him about, I mean, absurd. But like, it just, everything he did was, it was the perfect temperament for that place. All I want to do is deflate your enthusiasm. The game plan was perfect. The, the matchup is, is rough for Ben. And every, every person has that matchup where, you know, people like, oh, just do this. That's not the way it works. You're good at stuff and you struggle at stuff. Every player, the great Roger Federer was great against everyone. And Rafa's foreing comes into the equation. Mm-hmm. And it's rough. There's no quick fix. You can only get away from it so much, right? There are players that just don't like certain styles. um. you know in in spare of your talk about opportunity knocking they open the window twice this year and he walked through you want both times i say potential is probably engaged on the way you play against people that might be better than you careers are made in this need is a very important factor because again he was great for you he's been really good great olympic gold medalist last ten years he was good before the match up again center still not great for him is carlos better at a stop level yes what's changing he was able to get it across the finish line at rolling girls and it's not as if everyone's like oh he got he broke through he played like he handled it well i'm like guys he almost blew that match he was so tight for some almost got away from him he got through it the reason he got through it isn't because he played other wordly in that final it's not because he was a different person you know it's it's because he's put himself there enough times thanks for listening to served we'll be right back imagine setting your makeup then forgetting it's even theirs meet new grippy setting mist from mavelie new york jelda miss technology locks in your look for up to twenty four hours with flexible all day comfy grip no tightness no stickiness no residue just clump to a hydrated skin that still feels like your skin try new grippy setting mist from mavelie new york maybe it's maveline so much of what goes into being a player on tour is behind the scenes every moment matters when you're competing at the highest level the part that doesn't get talked about enough is recovery when i was on tour recovery had a very different meaning have a meal quick session with the physio now technology enables coaches and players to track their fitness in an entirely new way and make changes as a result when it comes down to it's sleep fitness is at the core of training and eight sleep is revolutionizing how athletes manage their sleep and recovery eight sleeps pod is a smart mattress cover that tracks and adjust your sleep temperature to keep you cool and promote up to thirty four percent more deep sleep that's the difference between waking up foggy and waking up actually rested before your next match if i had this in my playing days i could have saved on more than a couple late night food orders whether you're on tour or gearing up for your club championship now's the time to change the way you manage recovery head to eight sleep dot com slash served and use code served for up to three hundred and fifty dollars off the pod it's eight sleep dot com slash served code served for up to three hundred and fifty dollars off the pod all right back to the show can i read you some of the stats from today i mean you have been edged him out in aces with ten over nine bend had fewer double faults bends first serve percentage in was seventy one percent which is better than zverov zverov the win percentage off first serve was eighty five percent yeah and then when you look down i mean winners bend had forty seven to tizverives thirty five but then the unforced errors were flipped it was thirty one to forty seven less than you know and so it's like it in all like it was a pretty dominant performance by zverov when you watch it but been played competitively been played well yeah but the unforced error it's really says on four stairs but the four stairs yeah yeah it was through the middle when ben was attacking in the first two sets if you had a forehand he couldn't get anything out of the middle and zverov was controlling it he was not in a hurry to pull the trigger try to hit winners you know and he was basically just forcing ben to be aggressive from rough spots in the court that was the entire thing and you can do that you can kind of tighten it up a little bit when you serve seventy percent and you win you know close to ninety percent of your first serve points amazing like he didn't overplay he didn't do too much and i know all we're going to do is all i'm going to hear is that he's a different person and he's a different player mentally yes he is absolutely exercised all of the scar tissue mm-hmm all the scar tissue from twenty open from up two sets to one against carlos from you know all of the opportunities and all of the questions asked about when are you going to do it can you do it carrying that baggage you know i've talked him about it it was he was he was aware like he knew he knew exactly how he would be defined he was a realist about it but i don't know that his game is much different mm-hmm yes do you can you free up when you don't have the mental scar tissue yes well i mean it's he's two losses in slams this year are two carlos into yonic but i our service now static the day we were talking about this earlier but our service now stand of the days twenty five that's the number of slam match winds verve has this year only six open-air season seasons have produced more which were federal uh joke of itch they did it both a few times at twenty seven and then rod laver did it in nineteen sixty nine and then federal joke of itch and center are at twenty six and carlos's best is twenty four we we do need to say that's from the open era rod laver also when the grand slam in nineteen sixty two and nineteen sixty eight sixty six yeah let's have those in yeah just just by the way grand slam to twice but so i mean it's it's like you just said right he's he is performed and he has been a he's a great great players get that number right and then this year he seized opportunity and walked through the door you know when the draw permitted it listen you you and i know all the losers are gonna try to like spittness cheerios and say like you didn't beat them that matter doesn't matter doesn't matter it doesn't matter you've changed the entire narrative of your career you have two slams you will be a whole a favor i'm guessing he will touch number one you might even finish the year number one you what is the eighteen hundred points up right now yeah yeah it's he's like eighteen ten okay so that's that's uh that's a that's a master's one thousand and an eight to be two or finals ahead you can't think that like yonic and carlos coming off of injuries i don't know that they're gonna chase the number one ranking by overplaying in the fall coming off of injuries i mean i don't think so and i know it's very i was gonna do it like he's gonna chase it i i was when i was in position i chased it so you're you're in number one's on the tape yes easily i mean i mean nothing's easy but yeah i mean mathematically totally yeah it means a totally realistic scenario it's probably a i mean he's probably he's the favorite to do it i i think i just think he's gonna play more um i say if you would have told me that if you would have told me that it you're in number one would possibly be rebachina and sparrow i would have rebachina we thought it might happen i mean rebachina you called i don't know if we ever thought that sparrow would get there you know with carlos and yonic and obviously there's injuries there's injuries but like whatever are we gonna we're not gonna you can't take away slam you can bitch about it all you want the game slam is a slam is a slam is a slam can i can i ask you so according to megan she said that's verves now forty five have one has one forty five of the last forty six matches against lefties his one lost one hundred tn that streak starting after rough us retirement let's talk about this and i talked about it pregame today on the pregame show his brother misha very good player i don't know his career i was he made a courtesan australia beat murder there one time right good player lefty um him he has seen that type of spin his entire life that matters set in the pregame like that the sneaky thing like he's not gonna be he's not gonna be worried about the lefties spend he's seen it a million times a million times oh i bet he saw that more than he saw right he spent until he was ten his brother was career ranking twenty five yeah i was gonna say thirty he's top thirty guy like i mean it's it's very real that matters you know lefties going into and not today for sure even in the first game he he been win t on the do side twice is very stuck stuck next game stuck one misted the net and then stuck it again it's like you've seen that rep and you're tall and your backends are strength so the lefty has to serve into a strength that's what they want to do they want to serve into a back end you know so there were there's just a lot of things in that matchup that are good for spare of specifically and then the lefty thing does not surprise me for for those reasons it's interesting he also did something and you mentioned it a little bit ago but he did something that i'm pretty sure and we we obviously i'm not going to fact check this but i'm pretty sure that he did something that no one's ever done okay one a slam without knowing they want a slam i mean it was pretty incredible like like i was like oh i guess i thought he was i thought he was doing a we're blocking that's exactly what i thought i was like is he going forward blocking up that's why i said the desk he goes he came on the desk he goes i thought it was five one wow he goes i knew i broke twice i knew every game is important but he goes my team yelled at me i looked up i'm like so you just looked up and are you the first person to ever just looked up and just realized you want to slam he literally goes oh yeah like he looked up at the crowd he was like oh my god great um yes so i that was insane there's another thing that i i think we need to talk about i've sent it on this this show a bunch and i tried to bring it up whenever i can because i don't think enough has been made of it through the course of of his fair of square um he did mention he mentioned his mother and how important she was and you know the fact that when he was four years old and got diagnosed with diabetes you know they said you probably won't be able to play sports there's gonna be some limitations there's gonna be some stuff um there are things that are bigger than tennis him being A source of inspiration for the kids that get told they can't because of something has to maybe wins two slams, maybe never wins another one. That has to be his biggest legacy. It's being the guy that people can point to and say, and he was explained, I asked him about it on the desk because I talked about Brooks' father who's a diabetic and I said, "I obviously knew what diabetes was. I know the way it functions." I go, "What I didn't understand was how all-encompassing the maintenance of it is." My father-in-law covers a territory and goes to work and drives hours and hours a day as a diabetic and so my mother-in-law tests, and by the way, my mother-in-law is the best ever and she's on her phone. He's on her phone monitoring Steve every day because she can see it if he's in a surgery helping the doctor. He's in there for hours and loses track. She has to, it's a full-time job and there are things they can and can't do because of it. I just told him, I know I'm like touch and maybe I just have proximity to it now, but I think that's going to be his biggest legacy. It's like this illness that I have where you're not supposed to be able to do stuff, and his point was, "Well, now it's easy. I see you doing that on switchovers, because literally you're stabbing your leg and switchovers." He goes, "You had 20 years ago? You go 20 years ago, it was impossible." He goes, "My parents and what they did for me, you know, and how I had to manage it 20 years ago." He goes, "That's the heart. That was the heart part." So it's nice to see something happen and then someone potentially being, listen, does that make everyone perfect? Because they can be an inspiration for it? No. Of course not. That doesn't change the fact that someone somewhere will look at him and be encouraged or inspired or maybe have just a little uptick of energy because he did something great with this illness. Yeah. It's pretty special. Yeah. What else you got, Mike? You know, I think just flowers have been, you know, he's going to be number four of the world. Hell yeah, man. When it starts, he's up five spots. You know, I think it is, he went through a hell of a draw. I think this season has been a great season for him. I think he's moving in the right direction, momentum-wise. He has to be so disappointed. I know you speak to his dad some and I know you speak to him some, but more importantly, it's like there's nothing to hang your head about. I saw how dejected he looked behind, but I, you know, sometimes you need that for like the next phase. Yeah. But he should be super brown. Well, there's a lot of fun to watch and play. Yeah. And I think the bounce back, because we forget very quickly, hit a rough loss at Rolling Girls. He hit a for him and I'm not saying Verton is not a good player. I'm saying as a terrible loss for him, as a high seed with form going into Wimbledon, had to be just devastating. So to come back here and to show out as much as he did, I think that's a testament to their team. I think it's a testament to Ben. The more he puts himself in these situations, that quarter-final against Carlos, you know, entering a semi-final as the person people were considering the favorite, that's a different scenario. You know, before that, he loses, you know, you're playing center and the semis, it's not as if you're going in as a favorite. That's a different deal. That's a different type of pressure. So certainly a lot ahead for Ben. Obviously, congratulations to Robock and I again, your world. Let's see. What is it? Who is it? 13? Is it Midnight somewhere yet? Is she in a world somewhere yet? Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. In London, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. She's number one of the world in her home country. Happy happy London number one, Robock and I. Fantastic. I don't know. That's an interesting one. When does it take over officially for the rankings? It doesn't give me a mean time here. Maybe probably GMT. Yeah. Okay. Great. Perfect. We can do that. This was fun. Great US Open. Amazing. It's the greatest sporting event on Earth and the greatest city on Earth. It was fantastic. Starting, I mean, the exhibition against Roger was so special that felt like, that feels like it was a lifetime ago. A lifetime ago. But so many special memories always. I had a lot of fun working for ESPN. I appreciate the patience with everyone behind the crew and even with the people I called matches with. I did Wimbledon. I didn't know what buttons to push. Yeah. I don't know what talk back was. Yeah. I didn't know. Pretty much anything. So Malika's a gem. Amazing. Malika is a gem. She's a pro. Reese Davis is a gem of a human. Chris Budden, Jeff don't like, like everyone was just amazing. All my, my, my buddies who I knew I was, I was dropping into. It was, it was, it was fantastic. I enjoyed it. I hope I didn't suck at it. Don't forget Mike. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mike Monaco is, he's my guy. Yeah. I love Mike Monaco. He is fantastic. Yeah. Everyone was just great. And so I don't know. We'll see what the future holds. That's it. You got any parting thoughts there, producer Mike? We will be back in studio tomorrow. Much to Sean's sugar and to do our recap episode. Yeah. And we have, we have a special line. We actually switching out this week. Q&A Andy will, we'll swap spaces with love all because Kim will be on a college visit with Jada. So they're going to record a little bit later. So her recap is going to come on Thursday. A little bit more hindsight. And then we leave for labor cup. I don't want to talk about that yet. Next week. Thank you. I love labor. I love labor. I can't wait. I can't wait to be there. We still have a banging September. I don't want, I can't wait to cover labor cup. That's really fun. It's the first class event. I don't want to think about it till at least Thursday. If I'm being honest, this has been quick serve. Brought to you by service now. Thank you to Cadillac. Yes. I had a crazy idea. We were up here doing the Rafa Netflix doc interview. And I remember as we were talking about how we were going to kind of manage Wimbledon and the US Open and all that stuff. That's the US Open to be rough with those late nights. And I had the dumb idea. I was Sean and Mike. I go, can we build a studio in a car? And they go, yeah, I go really. Yeah. So I called the USTA that day and said, is this something that's possible? Everyone said, maybe. Let's see. So they got us, they saved us about nine hours of sleep. We got 100% over the course of two weeks. Ross and Becky Sean. Good job, man. Dude, you're the best chance marker for right now. Shout out to Rob or Driver. Rob's the man. Rob's the man and driver. Shout out to you and your family. Yeah, dude. Fine. Listen, I could go on. I could do a whole another show about appreciating firemen and police officers of New York City. But listen, that will never be over the appreciation for our first responders. But this US Open, it's a wrap in the books. We'll see you. I have my dream job. But even dream jobs have not so dreamy parts. They don't just tell you what to do about your busy work. They actually do it. To learn how to put AI to work for people, visit ServiceNow.com.