Ben Shelton isn’t the men’s American tennis hero – yet

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After Ben Shelton beat countryman Frances Tiafoe in a historic semifinal , he marveled at the star power that had come to Arthur Ashe to witness his win.

“I keep looking up at the screen like oh shoot, Jalen Brunson is here,” he said in his post-match comments on the court to the audible delight of the crowd.

Shelton has a baby face and a seemingly unshakable cockiness, the combination of which lent this compliment an added dose of aw shucks, awe-struck, game-recognizing-game.

There was a bevy of, perhaps, bigger celebrities in attendance - Brunson was seated next to Ben Stiller, for instance. But Shelton’s comments reflected the post-NBA-Finals reality in New York (or, at least, a savvy awareness of how to pander to it).

The Knicks are sports royalty in this city. Winning does that. On Sunday, the packed crowd for the US Open men’s finals was eager, at times to the point of collective desperation, to elevate Shelton himself to a similar status.

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Men’s top seed Alexander Zverev caps breakthrough year with US Open title

It would have made him the first American man to win the Open or, indeed, any Grand Slam championship since Andy Roddick in 2003. He would have been the first Black man to win a Grand Slam title since the stadium’s namesake did so 51 years ago at Wimbledon.

He had enjoyed a storybook run through the tournament to get to this stage. The No. 9 ranked player had prevailed in a semis that was the first ever to feature two Black American men. Before that, he dispatched the seven-time Grand Slam winner Carlos Alcaraz in an epic match that ended after 3:30 a.m.

This would be his first ever Grand Slam final. His dad is his coach. His girlfriend is a famous soccer star who traveled 250 miles from her own game in D.C. on Sunday to make it to his match.

Of course the 23-year-old with a megawatt smile and a made-for-social-media aura was the darling of the Queens crowd.

And as much as the many thousands of New Yorkers wanted to see Shelton prevail – This is your house! someone yelled at one point; I love you, Ben! another added – they also wanted to see the No. 2 ranked German, Alexander Zverev , lose. They booed his stumbles and egged on his faults, repeatedly calling for One more! in hopes of seeing a double fault.

It’s impossible to know, of course, how much of that animosity was nonspecific patriotism and how much, if any, was a direct response to the allegations of domestic violence made against Zverev by two of his former partners. The 29-year-old was never convicted, but nor was he proven innocent. One former partner declined to bring any criminal or civil charges against Zverev; the other, the mother of his child, settled with him out of court.

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If that seems like an awkward or abrupt departure for a tennis story, that’s because it is. Zverev’s new level of success this season – he finally shed the official title of best player to never win a Slam title at the French Open a few months ago – has re-centered the uncomfortable, unfortunate, but un-ignorable and all-too-common complexity of personal misconduct in sports.

Athletes are not always aspirational. On the one hand, that’s not their job. On the other hand, shouldn’t it be? Rootability isn’t ranked or quantified. It’s quaint, but it’s also what keeps the sport – any sport – viable. I don’t blame anyone who couldn’t bring themselves to root for Zverev. And a desire for collective rooting is what packed Arthur Ashe on Sunday.

So they rooted for Shelton to author an upset.

And it would have been one. In addition to occupying the higher seed, Zverev has prevailed in all five of their previous meetings. Shelton managed to win just one set in that span. He would win just one more on Sunday, falling 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2 to his superior opponent.

That third set, though, that animated the stadium. The DJ played Estelle’s ‘American Boy’ between games. The crowd chanted USA! When he clinched the set, Shelton cupped his ear to call for the standing ovation to revel even louder and they were happy to oblige.

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It felt like the momentum had shifted. Or maybe that’s just the storyteller in me talking. Shelton, though, is no author. And he’s not yet the best tennis player he can be. Maybe if there was a little more magic in the world, he would have won the US Open anyway, taking advantage of a field without Jannik Sinner and an injury-compromised Alcarez to end the drought of American male winners.

In truth, Shelton isn’t ready.

“Walking out on that court today, there’s nothing like it. I’ve never felt anything like that before,” he said appreciatively in his post-match press conference. That was about the energy, the atmosphere, a build-up to an obvious desire to return to such a heady state and an illustrious stage.

A few minutes later, he inadvertently found a different angle on the newness of it all. This is the furthest he’s ever made it in a Grand Slam. The most high-level tennis he’s ever played in a two-week span.

“I was tired before I took the court today,” Shelton said.

Maybe Ben Shelton is the future of American men in tennis. Maybe that future is a bright one. If the magic had been there for the men’s final of the US Open, maybe he would have inspired a new generation of boys to take up a racquet and a renewed national interest in a sport currently dominated on the men’s side by Europeans.

Instead, on the first NFL Sunday of the season, the kid who was his middle school quarterback came in second. In the media dining room, Zverev’s triumphant press conference was muted while the US Open staff watched football with the sound on.

No new heroes in the Knicks’ New York.

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本·谢尔顿在历史性的半决赛中击败同胞弗朗西斯·蒂亚福后，对前来阿瑟·阿什球场见证他胜利的明星阵容感到惊叹。

“我一直抬头看屏幕，心想：‘哎呀，杰伦·布伦森来了！’”他在赛后球场上说道，引得观众一片欢呼。

谢尔顿长着一张娃娃脸，却又带着一种似乎无法动摇的自负，这两种特质的结合，让这句赞美更添了几分谦虚、敬畏和认清现实的意味。

出席者中不乏一些名气更大的名人——例如，布伦森就坐在本·斯蒂勒旁边。但谢尔顿的言论反映了NBA总决赛后纽约的现实（或者至少，他很懂得如何迎合这种现实）。

尼克斯队在这座城市堪称体育界的皇室。胜利赋予了他们这样的地位。周日，在美网男单决赛现场，座无虚席的观众们渴望——有时甚至近乎集体绝望——将谢尔顿也捧上类似的宝座。

安吉拉·韦斯/法新社/盖蒂图片社

男子头号种子亚历山大·兹维列夫以美网冠军为突破性的一年画上圆满句号

这将使他成为自 2003 年安迪·罗迪克以来首位赢得美网公开赛冠军，乃至首位赢得大满贯冠军的美国男子选手。他也将成为自 51 年前这座球场的命名者在温布尔登网球公开赛上夺冠以来，首位赢得大满贯冠军的黑人选手。

他一路过关斩将，最终晋级到这个阶段，堪称一段传奇之旅。这位世界排名第九的选手在半决赛中胜出，而这场半决赛也是历史上首次由两位非裔美国男子选手对决。在此之前，他还在一场史诗般的比赛中击败了七届大满贯得主卡洛斯·阿尔卡拉斯，这场比赛一直持续到凌晨3点半之后才结束。

这将是他职业生涯中的首次大满贯决赛。他的父亲是他的教练。他的女友是一位著名的足球明星，周日她从华盛顿特区自己的比赛现场赶来，行程250英里，只为观看他的比赛。

当然，这位23岁、笑容灿烂、天生适合社交媒体的年轻人，是皇后区人群的宠儿。

尽管成千上万的纽约人都希望看到谢尔顿获胜——“这是你的主场！”有人一度高喊；“我爱你，本！”另一个人附和道——但他们也希望看到排名第二的德国选手亚历山大·兹维列夫输掉比赛。他们嘘声四起，怂恿他犯错，反复高喊“再来一次！”，希望看到他出现双误。

当然，我们无从得知这种敌意有多少是泛泛的爱国主义，又有多少（如果有的话）是直接针对兹维列夫两位前伴侣对其提出的家庭暴力指控。这位29岁的男子从未被定罪，但也未被证明无罪。其中一位前伴侣拒绝就兹维列夫的案件提起任何刑事或民事诉讼；另一位，也就是他孩子的母亲，则与他庭外和解。

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如果这听起来像是从网球故事中突然切入，那的确如此。兹维列夫本赛季取得的新成就——几个月前，他终于在法网公开赛上摆脱了“史上最佳无冕之王”的称号——再次将人们的注意力引向体育界个人不端行为这一令人不安、不幸却又无法忽视且屡见不鲜的复杂问题。

运动员并非总是令人向往的。一方面，这并非他们的职责。另一方面，难道不应该如此吗？支持度无法排名或量化。这或许有些古老，但也正是这项运动——任何运动——得以延续的关键所在。我不怪那些无法为兹维列夫加油的人。而正是这种集体支持的渴望，让周日的阿瑟·阿什球场座无虚席。

所以他们都希望谢尔顿能够爆冷取胜。

本来应该是一场胜利。兹维列夫不仅种子排名更高，而且在此前的五次交锋中全部获胜。谢尔顿在那五次交锋中只赢了一盘。周日的比赛中，他只赢了一盘，最终以6-3、7-6(2)、5-7、6-2的比分不敌实力更胜一筹的对手。

然而，真正点燃全场气氛的是第三场比赛。比赛间隙，DJ播放了Estelle的《American Boy》。观众们齐声高喊“美国！”。比赛结束时，谢尔顿捂住耳朵，示意观众们起立鼓掌，声音更大一些，而观众们也欣然响应。

马修·斯托克曼/盖蒂图片社

感觉形势发生了转变。或许这只是我作为故事讲述者的臆想。不过，谢尔顿并非作家，而且他还没达到最佳状态。也许如果世间再多一些奇迹，他本该赢得美网冠军，利用辛纳缺席和阿尔卡雷斯伤病困扰的局面，终结美国男子选手在美网的冠军荒。

事实上，谢尔顿还没准备好。

“今天踏上球场的感觉真是无与伦比。我以前从未有过这种感觉，”他在赛后新闻发布会上感激地说道。这指的是那种能量、那种氛围，以及他渴望重返如此令人兴奋的状态和辉煌舞台的强烈愿望。

几分钟后，他无意间从另一个角度体会到了这一切的新鲜感。这是他在大满贯赛事中取得的最好成绩，也是他在两周内打出的最高水平的网球。

“今天上庭前我就很累了，”谢尔顿说。

或许本·谢尔顿是美国男子网球的未来。或许他的未来一片光明。如果他在美网男单决赛中发挥出色，或许就能激励新一代男孩拿起球拍，重新燃起美国民众对这项目前男子网球界由欧洲选手主导的运动的兴趣。

然而，在NFL赛季的第一个周日，他中学时的四分卫却获得了亚军。在媒体餐厅里，兹维列夫的凯旋新闻发布会被静音，而美国网球公开赛的工作人员则开着声音观看橄榄球比赛。

尼克斯队在纽约没有涌现新的英雄。