Four years after claiming the greatest triumph of his career in Arthur Ashe Stadium, where he squeaked past Alexander Zverev in an angst-ridden fifth-set tiebreak to secure his only major championship, the 30-year-old Austrian bade a poignant farewell on the same stage, falling to a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 defeat at the hands of the 13th-seeded Shelton.

The outcome, though, felt less significant than the occasion. For Thiem, who announced earlier this year that he intends to retire at October’s Vienna Open after failing to recover from a wrist injury suffered in the summer of 2021, merely making the starting line in New York was cathartic. If not for the former world No 3 himself, then certainly to the many onlookers left gobsmacked that, in his final season, he was overlooked for a wild card at both Roland Garros – where he was a finalist in 2018 and 2019 – and Wimbledon.

While Thiem was given a relatively low-key sendoff on Court Suzanne Lenglen after a second round qualifying loss in Paris, the United States Tennis Association did right by their former champion, granting him a place in the main draw and, fittingly, a final outing in one of the sport’s most historic arenas. It meant that Thiem, whose 2020 title win was played in a stadium bereft of spectators because of the coronavirus pandemic, was belatedly able to share a moment with the New York public.

“Thank you so much for all your support on all those years,” said Thiem, addressing the crowd after a lovely show of respect from Shelton, who exchanged warm words with his vanquished opponent before orchestrating the home crowd’s applause for the former champion. “It’s been 10 years since I played here the first time.

“It’s actually a really important moment for me, because I had the greatest success of my career here on this court in this weird 2020, under very strange and different circumstances. Unfortunately, I had this success without any of you. So that was of course, at one point, a really amazing moment, but on the other hand also pretty sad.

“So I’m super happy that I got the chance to play my last US Open, my last match here, on this court, and I can spend now some time here with you guys, just to say thank you to all of you and make the time up for what we have missed four years ago. So that’s a really special moment, and I’m very grateful for everybody who came and everybody who got me the chance to play here one last time.”

Thiem’s evident gratitude was in one sense a measure of his perverse treatment at the preceding two majors, yet the Austrian has learned the hard way to take nothing for granted. His injury, which came at a moment when he was rediscovering his passion for the game after struggling to come to terms with the enormity of his victory in New York, was both cruelly timed and a brutal reminder of how fragile a career can be in elite sport.

“You hate to see a guy like that, such a nice guy, great player, go through the injuries and deal with all that he’s dealt with,” said Shelton. “But I think if I learn anything from him, it’s that this is a game that is unforgiving. Things can change quick. You can be at the top of the game, and your body doesn’t hold up or some freak accident happens. Injuries happen all the time. So tennis isn’t forever.’

In many ways, Shelton was an apt author of Thiem’s final US Open chapter. For all the stylistic differences between the pair, there are also parallels. They may be at opposite ends of their respective careers, but Thiem too was once the big-hitting, hyper-athletic young buck eager to crash the party against more celebrated rivals. For Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer then, read Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and (perhaps more contentiously) Holger Rune now. Different trio, similar challenge.

Already two places clear of the 15th-ranked Rune, Shelton is on a promising trajectory – even if his quest to defend the 720 points he earned for last year’s run to the semi-finals has been complicated by a draw that could pit him against Frances Tiafoe in the third round, followed by Djokovic. In fine fettle after skipping the Olympics to ply his trade on home soil, where he has already posted a semi-final finish in Washington and made the last eight in Cincinnati, Shelton moved smoothly through the gears against Thiem, pulling away rapidly after securing a tight opening set. How dearly he would like to follow the path trodden by Thiem four years ago.

“I feel pretty fine-tuned with the little things on the court right now,” said Shelton. “I’ve gotten a lot of match play.

“Coming into this tournament last year, I had little to no confidence, hardly any match wins. So it feels a little different being here this year. I just feel a little more at peace with my game, and I feel like I know my identity out there on the court.”

Thiem too knows what it is to have a clear sense of identity – and, until he fell victim to injury, that identity was almost invariably one of a winner. The pattern is nowhere more apparent than in his record against the big three of Nadal, Djokovic and Federer, against whom he won a collective total of 16 matches in 35 meetings. Although Thiem was unable to find a way past those players in grand slam finals, twice finishing runner-up to Nadal in Paris and losing out to Djokovic at the 2020 Australian Open, it is a tally neither Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, nor any other player born after 1990 can match. There could be no clearer evidence that his was a generational talent.

“I had really legendary matches against the best players in our era, maybe the best players in history,” said Thiem. “Each of them is really unique. I have the feeling it depends on the day, it depends on the surface, who is actually the toughest to play.

“I had matches against them where I was winning, against each of them, but I also had matches against each of them where I didn’t have any chance and where they made me look like almost a beginner. I mean, each of them is unique.”

As his monumental US Open victory demonstrated, so too is Thiem.

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Not content with shattering Ben Shelton’s US Open dreams with a 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) victory that moved him into a 10th final at Flushing Meadows, Djokovic brought the 20-year-old American down a peg by mimicking his signature “putting down the phone” celebration. It made for an unexpectedly tense conclusion, the 6ft 4in Shelton fixing the Serb with an icy glare as they met to shake hands.

Both men played down the moment afterwards. Shelton suggested with a polite smile that he was flattered, while Djokovic grinned impishly as he explained that he liked his rival’s gesture so much he wanted to try it out himself.

“I just love Ben’s celebration,” said Djokovic. “I thought it was very original, and I copied him. I stole his celebration.”

In truth, it felt unnecessary. Shelton, who is playing his first full year as a professional, performs the move as a tribute to the American 110m hurdler Grant Holloway, a three-time world champion, who trains at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where Shelton lives. There was simply no need for Djokovic to get involved. Yet it was also a moment of pure theatre, a signal from the 36-year-old that he is not yet ready to take calls from the younger generation enquiring about the availability of his grand slam hegemony.

That Djokovic decided to mock Shelton’s trademark celebration was also a measure of just how much his opponent’s thunderclap serve, sledgehammer forehands and adrenaline-fuelled bellicosity got under his skin.

“I didn’t see it until after the match,” said Shelton, who received flak from some quarters for punctuating his quarter-final win over Frances Tiafoe with the gesture.

“You know, I don’t like when I’m on social media and I see people telling me how I can celebrate or can’t celebrate. I think if you win the match, you deserve to do whatever you want. As a kid growing up, I always learned that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so that’s all I have to say about that.”

Ironically, as the third set demonstrated, it was Shelton who could have done with dialling things down. The magnitude of his firepower was undeniable. A 138mph second serve early in the first set drew audible gasps from the crowd; another, in the second, was timed at 143mph. Yet, as the errors mounted, the pressure he felt to overplay against one of the all-time greats was obvious. It was only when Shelton dug in from the baseline and started contesting the rallies, rather than simply trying to blow Djokovic off the court, that he began to look a credible threat.

That moment did not come until the business end of the third, when Shelton rallied to cancel out a break, held with a 145mph service winner to move to 5-4, and capitalised on some shaky forehands from Djokovic to reach set point. He will reflect ruefully on the irony that, when the big moment came, it was the Serb who came up with a mighty serve, a 124mph delivery wide to the ad court snuffing out the danger.

There was still time for a final exchange of breaks, Shelton making three unforced errors to leave Djokovic serving for it, then atoning by saving a match point before inviting the Serb to net an overhead off a high lob on break point. Inevitably, Djokovic won the ensuing tiebreak to move within one victory of equalling Margaret Court’s record of 24 grand slam titles.  

“[It was] quite a close ending to the match, with the crowd getting involved,” said Djokovic, who last made the final two years ago, when he was beaten by Daniil Medvedev. “So of course it wasn’t easy to close this match out, but I’m really glad I did in three sets. I didn’t want to take this match to a fourth set, that’s for sure. 

“Obviously, I knew that he’s got a lot of firepower. He has an amazing pop on the serve, he’s just so dynamic and very unpredictable. I just had to stay there mentally, present, calm, and focus on the game plan and what I need to do, and try to be solid from baseline. For most of the match I did and kind of made him play, made him uncomfortable.”

Shelton won the slugfest by 30 winners to 28, but in all the most meaningful metrics he was second best, creating just six break points to the Serb’s 14, converting two to Djokovic’s five, and making 43 unforced errors, 18 more than his opponent.

Shelton made the highlight reels; Djokovic made the final of all four majors in the same season for the third time in his career.

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With a 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Taylor Fritz of the US, Djokovic moved into the 47th grand slam semi-final of his career at the US Open, eclipsing a record he previously shared with Roger Federer. 

Should the 36-year-old defeat Ben Shelton of the US, a player at the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of age and experience, another historic milestone will hove into view: the chance to win a 24th grand slam title and equal Margaret Court’s all-time record. 

Shelton, a 20-year-old Atlantan ranked 47 in the world and playing his first full season on the ATP Tour, defeated Frances Tiafoe, the 10th seed, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-2.

It has been a remarkable debut campaign for Shelton, who only used his passport for the first time at the turn of the year, but made his first trip abroad a memorable one by reaching the Australian Open quarter-finals. Shelton has now won 50% of his grand slam outings, an outstanding statistic for such a young player, even if the sample size is limited to 20 matches. Naturally, though, that achievement pales into insignificance in comparison with Djokovic, who has won an extraordinary 88.21% of his 407 outings at the majors. 

“Obviously, it’s a huge opportunity every single time I step out on the court at this age, at this stage of my life,” said Djokovic. “I don’t know how many more opportunities I’ll get, so I am trying to enjoy it as much as I possibly can.”

Djokovic’s enjoyment inevitably came at the expense of his opponent’s misery. Fritz’s progress to the last eight could hardly have been more emphatic – four straight-set wins, 49 out of 50 service games won – but it quickly became clear that an afternoon of intense heat and humidity would follow a wearyingly familiar pattern for the Californian. Fritz was broken in each of his first two service games and, while the rallies were competitive, the score-line quickly became lopsided. 

Struggling with his serve and his consistency, Fritz made 51 unforced errors, over-pressing from the baseline as he sought in vain to avert an eighth successive defeat to Djokovic. By the end, the Serb’s chief source of consternation was an overexcited fan who distracted him as he was broken while leading 4-3 in the third set. No lasting damage was done, however, Fritz immediately relinquishing another break with a flurry of errors before Djokovic closed out the win in two hours and 35 minutes.

“Obviously, Novak being Novak, he’ll make me feel like I’m serving worse than I am,” said Fritz. “But in other matches I wouldn’t get as punished for missing so many first serves, I can maybe get away with it. With him, I have to serve better than 50%, and I have to hit my spots better. That’s just how it is.”

Shelton, whose 149mph serves and huge forehands have been the toast of the town these past 10 days, would do well to take heed. The charismatic southpaw had service problems of his own in the third-set tiebreak against Tiafoe, double-faulting twice in a row to gift Tiafoe the initiative. Shelton’s response to the danger, as the man he has likened to a brother held a set point at 7-6, was straight out of the Djokovic playbook. The youngster ripped a blazing forehand return winner, just as the Serb famously did twice to save match points against Roger Federer in US Open semi-finals, and never looked back.

“It’s one of my biggest weapons, my serve,” said Shelton. “So to lose two points the way I did was unfortunate and frustrated me. Down set point, I needed to let a little bit of that frustration out and kind of just let it go. I had been all set so uptight about things.

“There was just so much stress. I kind of needed a release and it ended up working out for me.”

Djokovic, who said beforehand he was looking forward to watching the all-American showdown, will no doubt have been suitably impressed. He is alive to the danger that lies ahead on Friday.  

“Ben Shelton has been serving some bombs this tournament,” said the Serb. “When his serve is on, he’s a very difficult player to play against, especially because he’s a lefty as well.”

With more history beckoning, you sense he will be ready.

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