Match Details
Fixture: (8) Ben Shelton vs Denis Shapovalov
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Date: September 4, 2026
Tournament: US Open Tennis Championships
Round: Third Round (Round of 32)
Category: Grand Slam
Surface: Outdoor hard
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Queens, New York City
Prize Money: $108,000,000
Live Telecast: USA – Tennis Channel | UK – Sky Sports | Canada – TSN
Ben Shelton vs Denis Shapovalov preview
Eighth seed Ben Shelton will face off against unseeded Denis Shapovalov in the third round of the 2026 US Open on Friday.
Shelton reached the third round with a 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(3), 7-5 win over Hubert Hurkacz, delivering 44 winners in a four-set battle that included a tense third-set tiebreak. He’s the No. 8 seed and a 2023 semifinalist at this event, and he’s continued to thrive under the lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Meanwhile, Shapovalov reached the third round with a 6-0, 6-4, 7-6(7) win over Luca Van Assche, needing 2 hours and 25 minutes and converting all three break points he earned in a lopsided opening set. It’s a solid follow-up to a runner-up finish in Los Cabos last month, and he’s now aiming to reach the fourth round here for the first time in six years, when he made a run all the way to the quarterfinals.
Ben Shelton vs Denis Shapovalov head-to-head
Shelton leads their head-to-head 4-0, most recently winning in three sets in the Dallas semifinal this February. They’re 3-0 on hard courts specifically.
Ben Shelton vs Denis Shapovalov odds
(Odds via BetMGM)
Ben Shelton vs Denis Shapovalov prediction
Shelton’s serve numbers this year are genuinely dominant: 9.53 aces per match with a 53.5% break-point conversion rate, and his 4-0 head-to-head edge, including 3-0 on hard courts, suggests his game has a real answer for what Shapovalov brings. Their Dallas semifinal earlier this year showed just how tight these matches can get, though, a deciding tiebreak that came down to Shelton saving 10 of 11 break points under real pressure.
Shapovalov, for his part, has been in strong recent form of his own, a runner-up finish in Los Cabos and a clean two-round run here that’s included 78% break-point conversion. His flat, aggressive shot-making off both wings can trouble anyone when it’s landing, and left-on-left matchups tend to produce unpredictable, high-error affairs regardless of ranking gaps.
Given Shelton’s superior serve numbers and his unblemished record in this exact matchup, even accounting for how competitive their previous meetings have been, he looks like the favorite here, especially with the added benefit of a home crowd behind him in New York.
Pick: Shelton to win in four sets.
Ben Shelton vs Denis Shapovalov betting tips
Tip 1: The match will have at least 35 games.
Tip 2: Shapovalov to win a set with a score of 7-5 or better.
Edited by Pritha Ghosh
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