Patrick McEnroe has made his pick, and it is Ben Shelton. On a Monday Zoom call promoting UOpen coverage, McEnroe said he likes Shelton to win the US Open and believes an American man will end the 23-year wait for a Grand Slam singles champion next month.
That is the kind of call that gets attention because the last American man to win a major singles title was Andy Roddick at the 2003 US Open, when he beat David Nalbandian and Juan Carlos Ferrero back to back. The drought has stretched from that 2003 finish to next month's US Open, and McEnroe is betting Shelton can be the one to break it.
McEnroe did not dismiss the field around Shelton. He said Carlos Alcaraz remains the favorite on paper for the men's side, and that if Alcaraz shows up fully fit, he is still the man to beat. But McEnroe also pointed out that Alcaraz has not played a match since winning his Barcelona opener in April, which leaves him less dominant than he would be after a fuller season. That is why McEnroe said he would not make the same wager himself if he were putting money on the line.
Novak Djokovic is the other force in the draw that McEnroe singled out. He said Djokovic is capable of winning a record-extending 25th Grand Slam crown in New York, but added that too many things would have to break right for that to happen. Shelton, by contrast, gives McEnroe a cleaner path: he thrives on North American hard courts, and that surface profile is the backbone of his case.
So the prediction is not simply a bold guess. It is a read on form, fitness and the calendar. Shelton enters the tournament with the kind of hard-court strengths McEnroe trusts, Alcaraz arrives with the bigger reputation but unanswered physical questions, and Djokovic remains dangerous without looking like a sure thing. If McEnroe is right, the 23-year American drought ends next month in New York, and Shelton becomes the name attached to it.
