On a Sunday afternoon set up for Ben Shelton to play national hero, the US Open final debutant suffered a four-set defeat to Alexander Zverev, a result that deflated the partisans at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The match compounded Shelton’s miserable head-to-head record against the German, who claimed a second career grand slam title without having to face final bosses Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz. The defeat also extended a long drought – the last win by an American man at a grand slam was Andy Roddick at the 2003 US Open, when Shelton was still a month off his first birthday.

After the final, Shelton wore a hangdog expression as he thanked his team and the capacity crowd in New York, tucking the silver runner-up tray under his arm as if shunted off to high school detention. “Disappointed with how today went,” he said in his press conference afterward. “Excited with the progress that I feel that I’ve made. But, yeah, this one stings 100%.”

That’s putting it mildly.

For a good 15 years, the drumbeat for an American men’s grand slam champion had swelled. When it wasn’t Roddick himself dealing with that weight as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal dominated the tour, it fell on Mardy Fish (a second-week slam threat before injuries derailed him), John Isner (the college star who reached the 2018 Wimbledon semis) and Jack Sock (the US Open juniors champion who backed up the hype with a Paris Masters crown).

But by the time Steve Johnson, a contributor to four college championships at USC, rolled around, American media and fans had mostly abandoned the dream of a homegrown male contender disrupting a hegemony that, with the breakout of Novak Djokovic, became the Big Three (not to mention Andy Murray). All the while, the home slam deftly walked the line between touting potential up-and-comers, reveling in its past and, finally, leaning into the accomplishments of the American women, who have won six singles titles at the US Open since Roddick’s triumph. But the failure of US men to meet the world-class standard of Ashe and Stan Smith in the 1970s, then John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors through to Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras in the 1990s and early 2000s, still stung. Not as bad as Murray’s early years frustrated success-starved Brits, but close.

“One, at this point I hate talking about it,” Roddick said of the drought discourse on his podcast last year. “Two, I hate that other players have to talk about it. Three, I hate that, like, [John McEnroe] has to talk about it. For fuck’s sake, he won a lot. I won one.”

As the Big Three era gave way to the Big Two of Sinner and Alcaraz, the Great American Hope story had somewhat faded. Frances Tiafoe’s Horatio Alger arc, from sleeping in a tennis club storage room to being cheered by the first Black president and first lady, was a feelgood story; Taylor Fritz’s breakthrough into the 2024 US Open final, a happy occasion. Then, just when expectations had been calibrated, Shelton slid into frame.

Here was a kid who could have excelled in any sport, who resisted tennis until adolescence because of his family’s pedigree – his father, Bryan, was ranked No 55 in the world and reached the final of the French Open in mixed doubles, his mother was a good junior player and one uncle, Todd Witsken, was in the world’s top 50. And yet when Shelton arrived at the 2023 US Open after winning a college national title at Florida, not only was this big kid’s huge potential clear, there was no denying his star quality either. And when he advanced past 2020 US Open champion Dominic Thiem and compatriots Tommy Paul and Tiafoe before being turned back by Djokovic, the eventual champ, for US fans it was like receiving a rain forecast in the desert.

The work Shelton has put in since to make good on his potential is undeniable – and he won four titles this year, not least a defense of his Canadian Open crown, heading into New York. And the fact that he was being coached by his father gave Shelton a massive edge over his compatriots. The evolution of his game – specifically, the upgraded backhand that has made him a dangerous returner and more competitive in long rallies (the slice, in particular, really is quite splendid) – is stark. And after Shelton outlasted Alcaraz in an epic and bested Tiafoe in the semi-finals, there was hope among American fans that Roddick’s record would fall.

But on Sunday it was not to be. Zverev was simply too tall to lob over, too quick to snuff out net points and too canny about baiting his opponent into chasing baseline balls outside his strike zone. All the while, Shelton’s devastating serve deserted him, to the tune of four double faults and four of six break points lost – one of those handing Zverev an immediate fourth-set edge after Shelton had fought his way back into the match.

Despite the crowd’s best efforts to lift Shelton – with “USA!” chants and the Florida fans, in blue and orange regalia, reminding him of his college brilliance with their Gator chomping (overzealousness that prompted scolding from chair umpire Marijana Veljovic) – the aura was gone. You could see it really slip at 3-4, 30-30 in the third set on Zverev’s serve, when Shelton got impatient with a baseline rally, came to the net on a driving forehand, and Zverev immediately passed him down the line, sending Shelton flat on his face. As the American lay slapping the ground, 23 years of US frustration came into sharp relief.

Of course, it’s not all lost for Shelton, who jumps to No 4 in the world rankings. He is still just 23, with plenty of time to improve his game and he can take another big step at the ATP Finals before next year’s Australian Open.

“Ben, I already told you you’re going to be back here many, many more times if I would have to bet my money on it,” Zverev said in his acceptance speech. “I would bet that you would lift this trophy one day.”

But as long as Alcaraz and Sinner sit at the top of the game and Zverev is entrenched just below, the US men’s drought abides.