Long after midnight behind the baseline at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the clocks pushed past 2:50 a.m. Wednesday had already arrived. For most of New York, it was a school day, with dawn creeping closer by the minute. Inside the arena, however, several thousand fans — some boozy, some barely awake, many simply swept up in the madness — watched Carlos Alcaraz and Ben Shelton carry the US Open into extraordinary territory.

No match in tournament history had ended this late. And rarely had these two produced anything quite so dramatic. After nearly four hours and four-and-a-half punishing sets, this quarterfinal still would not let go.

It was draining, dazzling and, for Alcaraz, visibly brutal. Before the deciding set began, the defending champion appeared to be sick into his towel. Still, the contest rumbled on, refusing a simple ending and driving inevitably toward a fifth-set tiebreak.

At last, at 3:33 a.m., after four hours and 28 minutes of ferocious tennis, Shelton ended it in thunderous fashion. A 146mph ace sealed the night, prompting the young American to stick out his tongue, pull Alcaraz into a long embrace and finally absorb the biggest victory of his career.

The final score — 6-7 6-1 6-3 1-6 7-6 — captured the wild rhythm of a match that lurched one way and then the other as night turned into morning. Between two of tennis’s most explosive young stars, it was Shelton’s power, nerve and booming serve that ultimately carried him through.

What a player. What a night. What a shame someone had to lose. And what a travesty most of the world had to sleep through it. Forget, for a moment, the incredible theater on this long night in New York. What are we doing? Who wins from starting a game after 11pm – beyond a few insomniacs, TV viewers on the other side of the world, and Shelton’s semifinal opponent Frances Tiafoe? 

Alcaraz has now played in the two latest finishes in US Open history. Back in 2022, en route to his first title in New York, the Spaniard beat Jannik Sinner at 2:50am. How we missed him over those four months when his wrist betrayed him. With this defeat, Alcaraz’s title defense is over. With this win, Shelton has ensured an American will be in the final and a new name will be on the trophy.

It was at 11:05pm local time – after more than 13 hours of action and a final plea to influencers not to use Arthur Ashe Stadium for a personal photoshoot – Shelton and Alcaraz were finally ready to bring the curtain down on Day 11.

They had just over three and half hours to wrap this up or risk breaking new ground. They failed. Of course they failed. This showdown with Shelton had all the ingredients to be a blockbuster, another marathon tug of war.

But the 23,000 fans who forked out for this night session – including Seal, Simone Biles and Kevin Hart – knew the risk they ran. Unlike at Wimbledon, there is no 11pm curfew here. Only last week, Venus Williams’ first-round match kicked off at 12:13am – a US Open record – and on his way to the quarterfinals, No 1 seed Alexander Zverev has already clocked off at 1:55am and 2:15am.

Shelton had played beyond 2am in the second round and there was nothing sleepy about the way he began this match. 

For 12 games and most of a breathless first-set tiebreak, the American went toe-to-toe with Alcaraz. Time and again, this contest delivered on its promise of swagger and vicious shot-making.

And yet it felt so predictable, so ominous, when – at 5-5 – Shelton was broken to love. How often do we see the very best find a way just when a set teeters on a knife edge?

This time, though, Shelton did not yield. At least not immediately. He broke back before taking control of the tiebreak. 

One astonishing rally, in which the American pulled Alcaraz from back to a front like a yo-yo, sent Arthur Ashe into a frenzy. Only one member of the crowd was not lost in rapture: Shelton’s father, Bryan, who gestured for his son to calm down.

The 23-year-old heeded his advice and looked set to steal the set when he led 5-3 in the tiebreak. But then, Alcaraz found something from somewhere. Four points later, he had drawn first blood.

That was the trigger for many inside Arthur Ashe to call it a night. Who could blame them for thinking the dye was cast? Thankfully Shelton didn’t see it that way – even after squandering four break points in the opening game of the second set.

The American’s pressure finally told two games later and, this time, Alcaraz had no immediate answer. So Shelton turned the screw, breaking three times in succession to take the set 6-1. It was 12:56am, we had a game on our hands and the stadium speakers blasted out Jay Z’s reminder that this ‘city never sleeps.’

You’d do well to doze off in earshot of ‘DJ Mode’ at the best of times. Let alone with this quarterfinal so finely poised. 

And yet, by the time Alcaraz and Shelton climbed out of their chairs, more and more fans were on their way home. At this point, nowhere was more sparsely filled than courtside where a single seat can cost up to $5,000.

Those who remained in the posh seats were treated to more majesty at either end of the third set: first, a remarkable rally that saw Shelton stretch and contort every fiber of his 6ft 4in frame. 

After 18 shots, Alcaraz eventually claimed the point before cupping his hand behind his ear. And then, half an hour later, the Spaniard won a battle of touch around the net. Even Shelton’s girlfriend – soccer star Trinity Rodman – rose to her feet to applaud.

Unfortunately for Alcaraz, neither made a difference as Shelton held firm to take the third set. This time, his father was his biggest hype man. At the other end, Alcaraz bent at the waist. It was 1:43am and those four-and-half months off appeared to be catching up with the No 2 seed. He was grimacing and chuntering and soon Alcaraz faced more break points.

This time, though, he saved them and then, out of nowhere, he put dent after dent in Shelton’s serve. Alcaraz won five of the next six games to send this to a decider. It was 2:20am and we were headed toward more history on Arthur Ashe.

How much had that taken out of the defending champion? As thousands of fans – many of whom had migrated from the nosebleeds to the lower bowl – bayed for more, Alcaraz appeared to vomit into his towel.

And yet, as this match ticked towards a fifth hour, the Spaniard seemed to find a second – third? fourth? – wind. He opened up a break-point opportunity and repelled Shelton as the American banged at the door. By the time Alcaraz sent this to a tiebreak, it was 3:21am. At long, long last. Something had to give. In the end, it was Alcaraz who broke. 

At 3:33 a.m. Wednesday, with the stadium lights still blazing and a stubborn crowd refusing to leave, Ben Shelton finally released everything he had been holding in. Those who stayed had traded sleep — and likely a rough day at work — for the chance to watch a U.S. Open tennis match few of them will ever forget.

Shelton pumped his fists, shouted into the night, then shouted again, the emotion pouring out of him in waves.

He turned toward his player box and let out another roar. After a performance like that, who could blame him?

The 23-year-old had just delivered the biggest win of his career, keeping alive his bid to end the long drought for American men at the U.S. Open.

And in Shelton, American tennis may be seeing something it has not truly had since Andy Roddick walked away from the sport: a compelling male star capable of carrying the spotlight on the game’s biggest stages.

Across four hours and 28 minutes, Shelton, seeded eighth, stunned seven-time major champion Carlos Alcaraz 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (7) — knocking out the Spaniard who has lifted the trophy here twice, and who had dropped just one set in his first four matches here in 2026.

Shelton will face Frances Tiafoe, who won his own epic on Arthur Ashe some hours earlier, in the semifinal on Friday.

That guarantees an American male will play in the U.S. Open final for the second time in three years and, more poignantly, for just the third time in 20 years.

And in Shelton, there may be the best chance anyone has had for an American man to break a Grand Slam drought that has spanned 23 years, since Roddick bested Juan Carlos Ferrero in 2003.

“For me it’s always about the people in the crowd,” Shelton said in an on-court interview afterward. “Whether it’s my team over there, my family and friends over here, every single New Yorker showing up here tonight at 3 am with the USA chants until the very end.”

The Floridian looked so at home on the New York stage. He played with emotion and theatrics, had the crowd on his side and managed to beat Alcaraz without ever looking like he was leaning on his 140-mph serve.

He covered the baseline terrifically, controlled points in the return game, picked his spots at the net. Rally after epic rally, he went blow for blow with arguably the best player in the world, and then some.

Even with that, it took five grueling sets and everything Shelton had in his tank to make it through.

As both players stayed on serve in the fifth set, the morning passed 2:50 a.m. and the match became the latest in U.S. Open history.

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As Alcaraz served down 3-4, it hit 3 a.m. and as he staved off a trio of break points and screamed into the night, the match crossed the four-hour threshold and by then, everyone still there wasn’t going anywhere because once you’ve stayed that late, you’re pot committed.

They stayed on serve. It went to a tiebreak. Of course it did.

Shelton led  the 10-point tiebreak 3-1 and dropped the next four points.

He pulled back ahead with a booming serve at six-all, then watched an Alcaraz backhand sail long to go up 8-6. He lost the next point, then served at 8-7 for the match with the building ready to explode.

Alcaraz hit a return wide for 9-7.

Then Shelton unleashed an ace to end it.

From the beginning, it had looked destined for a memorable end.

With both men on serve at five-all in the first set, Shelton blinked first. Then he broke Alcaraz back and took a 5-3 lead in the tiebreak before dropping four consecutive points for the set.

No matter — and not shaken after failing to convert four break points in the opening game of the second set — Shelton ripped off nine consecutive games against an increasingly confused Alcaraz to take the second set 6-1 and open a 3-0 lead in the third, more than enough to coast to a 6-3 finish.

Against almost anyone else on the planet, this would have been over in four sets after Shelton dominated the second and third, making his opponent look bizarrely normal. Against Alcaraz, it was all but guaranteed to go five — and indeed, the Spaniard recovered to cruise through a 6-1 fourth set.

It was only right that this would go all the way.

And after Connors and McEnroe, Chang and Agassi and Sampras and Roddick and a generation in the wilderness, this may just have been the night the next male face of American tennis appeared to take up the mantle.

“It’s incredible,” Shelton said. “I would say this is the greatest sports city in the world, I would say this is at the greatest stadium in the world. I’m just hoping my best friend and my sister up there don’t have to be at work at 6 am in three hours.”

Hungary has ordered 10 people affiliated with Russia’s mission to leave the country.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Orban — who is not related to Hungary’s former prime minister, Viktor Orban — said in a post on X that the individuals had taken part in conduct deemed “unacceptable” under the Vienna Convention.

“Acting on my instructions, on Tuesday the relevant official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the Russian ambassador to Hungary that, according to the assessment of the Hungarian authorities, 10 members of the Russian mission had engaged in activities in Hungary that are unacceptable for diplomats under the Vienna Convention. The Hungarian side has therefore called on the individuals in question to leave Hungary,” she declared in the post.

Orban emphasized, however, that Hungary is not severing diplomatic relations with Russia.

“This decision protects Hungary’s security and sovereignty. It does not imply breaking off diplomatic relations with Russia. Hungary intends to continue the necessary dialogue, based on mutual respect and adherence to the rules,” she said in the post.

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The Russian Foreign Ministry, in comments to Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti, vowed to provide “an appropriate response” to the expulsions.

Hungary is a member of the European Union.

European Commission spokesperson Christian Wigand said Tuesday that “we take note of Hungary’s legitimate decision” to expel the Russian diplomats.

Wigand noted that the move was an expected response due to “Russia’s persistent campaign in using hybrid attacks against the EU and its member states.”

Hungary is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), of which the U.S. is a founding member.

When Nick Marson set off from London on Continental Airlines Flight 5 bound for Houston, Texas, on September 11, 2001, he believed he was heading into another routine business trip. Within hours, however, the journey would take an extraordinary turn and reshape his life in ways he could never have imagined.

His aircraft became one of 38 planes unexpectedly rerouted to Gander, Newfoundland, after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, DC, forced US airspace to close. Almost overnight, about 6,700 stranded travelers arrived in the small Canadian community, nearly doubling the local population.

For much of the flight, passengers were given only vague updates about “problems” affecting American airspace. It was not until shortly before landing that the pilot revealed the devastating truth: the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had been attacked. After touching down safely, Nick felt overwhelming relief. He was later taken to Gambo, roughly 30 minutes north of Gander, where he and other passengers were housed in the town’s largest building, The Society of United Fisherman.

Standing in line for an old army blanket to use on his cot that night, romance was the furthest thing from Nick’s thoughts. Then he found himself beside Diane, a woman from Texas whose easy smile and sharp sense of humor immediately stood out. The two began joking about the blankets’ unmistakable mothball smell, and a connection sparked in the most unlikely of circumstances.

Their conversation flowed so naturally that they chose cots beside one another. The following day, needing a break from the constant stream of news coverage about the attacks, Nick and Diane decided to go for a walk together.

As they chatted, they realized that they had been on the same flight, with Diane traveling back home to Houston after visiting her son, an Air Force service member who was stationed in England.

Though they hailed from different countries and cultures, what really struck them was how much they had in common. Both were divorcees with grown children from previous relationships and both prioritized family.

Little did they know, as they walked and chatted that day, that within the year they would be married. More than that, their love story, born on such a dark day, would inspire the award-winning Broadway musical, Come From Away.

‘We spent a lot of time talking about our lives, because we came from two different backgrounds, so we had a lot of things to discuss,’ Nick, now 77, told the Daily Mail.

‘We both had similar values,’ Diane, 85, added. ‘Our families mean so much to us and we both try to be helpful and respectful to other people, whether they agree with you or not.’

Diane was intrigued by her British companion. When it was lunchtime and they stopped at a convenience store, she paid for their snacks in a bid to spend more time with him.

Later that evening they went to a screech-in event, a Newfoundland tradition where visitors take shots of alcohol and kiss fish to become honorary Newfoundlanders. Their easy chemistry was so clear to others that Nick and Diane were mistaken for a married couple.

When they laughingly explained that they weren’t, the master of ceremonies, who was also a justice of the peace, offered to marry them – to which Diane responded, ‘Why not?’

‘Neither one of us got on that plane looking for a romantic character our age,’ Diane said, explaining that in that moment, she was just looking to be ‘silly’ and ‘lighten the mood.’ But she couldn’t deny that she was starting to feel very fond of Nick.

She got a clear indicator of how Nick felt about her the next day when they took a trip to the Dover Fault, the geological rift in the Earth’s crust that marks where North America and Europe were once welded together. Nick wanted to take a picture to remember their day and when Diane tried to get out of the shot to allow him an unimpeded image of the scenery, he stopped her.

Nick said: ‘I wanted a picture of this day and what turned out to be five wonderful days [together]. I needed to ensure that it really happened and it wasn’t something I dreamt up or embellished in my mind.

‘I wanted to make sure that I remembered what she looked like… I didn’t want to forget. And at that point, I didn’t think I’d ever see her again.’

For Diane, that was all the confirmation she needed.

‘That’s when I knew he was interested in me and not the scenery,’ she said.

Five days after Nick and Diane arrived on the island, air travel was cleared for the diverted planes. They boarded a school bus together to travel to the plane that would take them to Texas.

On the bus, Diane began to cry, overcome with the emotions of the past week and the thought of never again seeing the people in Newfoundland to whom she had become so close. Though it had just been five days, the stranded passengers had spent hours getting to know the residents of Gambo, who had treated them like family.

To soothe her, Nick put his arm around her and kissed her forehead gently.

In response, Diane recalled: ‘I just grabbed him and kissed him because I thought if I don’t, I’ll never have another chance.

‘He lived 5,000 miles away – the chances of us ever meeting were about zero.’

‘That changed the airplane ride home,’ Nick said, noting that the couple ‘canoodled’ the entire flight, so much so that a flight attendant jokingly offered them cold towels, instead of hot ones.

Once Nick returned to London, they began corresponding over email – communications which they supplemented with long telephone calls on the weekends.

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Within a month, Nick, who worked in the oil industry, had found a way to finagle another business trip to Houston.

It was a month after that trip, that Nick proposed. He did so over the phone in his car, unable to wait until his next trip to Houston. Diane happily accepted.

‘It was less than two months after we’d met, but we knew we wanted to be together,’ Diane said.

‘It just felt right,’ Nick added.

For the next year, the couple dealt with the red tape and logistics of Nick immigrating to the U.S, and strengthened their bond by meeting each other’s families. They made the decision for Nick to move to America because Diane had just purchased a house in Spring, Texas.

And while there can be no doubt that their romance was a whirlwind, given the circumstances under which they met, Nick and Diane knew that time was too precious to worry about whether or not they were moving too fast. They married on September 7, 2002.

For their honeymoon, the Marsons knew that they wanted to return to where their romance had sprung: Newfoundland.

‘Where would we spend our honeymoon other than where we met?’ Diane said.

They had intended to throw a thank-you dinner for the islanders who had welcomed them so warmly almost exactly a year earlier. Instead, their friends on the island surprised them with a wedding reception complete with wedding cake and a song about their love story performed and written by the mayor of Gambo.

‘We made so many memories with all of the people up there,’ Diane said. ‘We spent the week of our honeymoon with the people that had looked after us.’

Today, Newfoundland has become a home from home for the Marsons, who have returned to the Canadian island nine times and keep in close touch with their Newfoundland friends.

But while their love story, a bright spot in the midst of a devastating tragedy, may have been the talk of Gambo, it was largely unknown outside of Newfoundland. That changed in 2010, when they were featured in Tom Brokaw’s documentary about Gander’s role in aiding America’s Operation Yellow Ribbon – the nation’s response to the terror attacks.

‘Until that point, we hadn’t been comfortable with sharing the story with people other than close friends and family,’ Nick said. ‘I think it’s survivor’s guilt. We don’t feel comfortable with what we had when 3,000 families had been devastated.’

Three years later, Nick and Diane’s story was immortalized when their love story became one of those featured in the Tony and Olivier award-winning musical, Come From Away, which is set in Gander the week of 9/11.

The Marsons had been approached by the musical’s creators Irene Sankoff and David Hein in 2011, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and had given them their blessing to use their story but were largely uninvolved with the development of their on-stage counterparts.

When they did see the musical for the first time in 2013, they were thrilled with how Sankoff and Hein had brought to life that time in Newfoundland and paid homage to the kind people who had hosted them.

Since the musical debuted, the Marsons have seen the production in various forms, including on Broadway and in regional productions, at least 160 times. They have even toured with some theatre group productions.

‘Diane says every time we see it, it’s like we’re renewing our vows,’ Nick said. ‘It takes us back to those wonderful five days… sometimes, you think, “Was it real?”‘

Now, 25 years later, it’s clear that the Marsons’ love for one another is just as real as it was when they first met in the shelter on Newfoundland. Nick says that though they always hold space for the tragedy of 9/11, they have finally moved on from the guilt that plagued them in the early years of their romance.

‘Enough time has gone by for the survivor’s guilt to dilute,’ he said. ‘You realize that there are good and bad things that happen in life and you have to navigate all of it. We didn’t cause it, so we probably shouldn’t feel guilty that we found each other.’

For Diane, the tragedy surrounding their love story only highlights how important it is to cherish the time that they have together.

‘We just enjoy spending time together because we know how precious it is,’ she said.

FRANKFORT, Ill. (WLS) — A Will County judge ruled Tuesday that Corie Walsh will remain jailed while awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges connected to the death of her 2-year-old son, Barrett.

Walsh, 40, appeared in court restrained in handcuffs and shackles, lowering her head at moments during the proceeding. Defense attorneys urged the judge not to view the case as first-degree murder, arguing that Walsh was in the midst of a psychotic episode when the child died.

Warning: The details of the story may be disturbing to some viewers.

In court, prosecutors outlined disturbing allegations surrounding Barrett’s Sept. 1 death at the family’s Brookstone Court home in Frankfort. They said the toddler was discovered hanging from basement rafters after his siblings came home from school. A neighbor found the child, began CPR and called 911, but Barrett was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

Prosecutors also alleged that Walsh’s 8-month-old infant was left unattended on a carpeted area in another part of the house while Walsh was upstairs in a bathtub, allegedly trying to harm herself. According to prosecutors, the same neighbor found Walsh, removed a kitchen knife from her hands and used a towel to apply pressure to wounds on her wrists and thighs.

Prosecutors further alleged that “the defendant told officers she did this to her baby because he was the ‘devil’ and the ‘anti-Christ.'”

They also alleged Walsh threatened to kill her husband upon his return from an out-of-state trip using a poisoned drink. Prosecutors said a drink and open bottles of prescribed medication were found on a counter at the home. The couple’s three other children were not harmed, though prosecutors alleged Walsh also threatened to kill them.

The hearing also included discussion of the Lindsay Clancy murder trial. Prosecutors said, “Witnesses informed the officers that the defendant had recently become very invested in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial; at the time of this occurrence, the jury was still deliberating on the matter.”

According to prosecutors, Walsh participated in a group chat with other mothers in which she believed Clancy’s husband had killed their children but allegedly texted on the morning of the incident that she had changed her view.

Gil Soffer, ABC7’s chief legal analyst, said prosecutors are likely to focus on evidence they believe shows Walsh understood her actions.

“What actions did she take that might show that this is someone who did appreciate that what she was doing was wrong? That’s going to be the thrust of the prosecution’s case,” Soffer said.

Walsh is represented by Casey Anthony’s former attorney Andrea Lyon and Anthony Kerr, who rejected any connection between Walsh’s case and the Clancy trial.

“The speculation that this has anything to do with copycat or anything like that is baseless and cruel,” Lyon said.

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Soffer said the defense views the Clancy references as potentially harmful to its case.

The defense also challenged the first-degree murder charges, arguing that statements Walsh allegedly made that day were disorganized and unreliable because she was experiencing psychosis.

“She was psychotic, and this was not a first-degree murder,” Lyon said.

“We feel very strongly about what Corie needs, the attention she needs, and we’re going to continue fighting for that. This is not a case of first degree murder, it’s anything but that,” Kerr said.

Unlike the Clancy case in Massachusetts, the defense in Illinois bears the burden of proving insanity.

“It’s a harder road to here than it is for the defense in Massachusetts,” Soffer said.

Members of Walsh’s family attended the hearing in support of her. Defense attorneys said Walsh’s husband and mother were unable to attend because Barrett’s funeral was being held Tuesday but wanted to express their “unwavering support of Corie.”

They said Walsh’s husband continues to support her despite the alleged threats against his life.

Walsh’s attorneys said they are considering an appeal of the judge’s detention ruling and may seek pretrial release at a future hearing. Walsh is scheduled to return to court Sept. 24.

If you are experiencing suicidal, substance use or other mental health crises please call or text the new three digit code at 988. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also go to 988lifeline.org or dial the current toll free number 800-273-8255