Ben Shelton wants to improve on his performance at last year’s US Open
Ben Shelton was a successful tennis player before turning professional. The 21-year-old won a singles title at the NCAA Division I Tennis Championships and was also named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Player of the Year, all while being coached by his father, former tennis player and tennis coach Bryan Shelton.
Shelton’s best performance at a Grand Slam tournament was the 2023 US Open, where he defeated fellow Black man Frances Tiafoe in the quarterfinals before losing in straight sets to eventual champion Novak Djokovic in his first Grand Slam semifinal match. Now Shelton is helping to improve on his success from last year and become the first American man to win a Grand Slam title since Andy Roddick at the 2003 US Open.
Shelton, who is the second-highest-ranked American in the world at 13th, won his first match 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 against Austrian and 2020 US Open champion Dominic Thiem on Monday.
“I thought it was a good start, a good performance from me today,” said Shelton after the win. “There wasn’t really any category I was unhappy with. I thought I served extremely well today.”
I controlled the game well with my forehand, it was the best forehand I’ve had in a long time. I managed 24 of 28 shots at the net. I can’t complain about how the starts go in a Grand Slam.”
Shelton said he was neither nervous nor excited during the game.
“I think after last year, the stage doesn’t get much bigger than this,” he said of playing Djokovic. “I got used to it now. I just felt comfortable. Used to it. It felt like I’d been there before. Yeah, definitely excited. I think any chance to play on the Arthur Ashe is a moment you remember forever. Yes, I added a point to the books today and yes, I’m just happy with how things went out there. Yes, I enjoyed it.”
Shelton, who is also ranked 13th in the world at this year’s US Open, was asked what stood out about his success last year.
“I think you learn a lot from those experiences, how to best recover from a tough five-set match, how to fall asleep after the night session here,” he said. “Every court plays differently, whether you’re playing in the stands or Court 10 or Arthur Ashe. I think there’s a lot of things you have to think about depending on the situation you’re in. If you’re unseeded and maybe you play most of your matches on an outdoor court, you’re on a big run and then all of a sudden you’re playing one of the big guys on (Arthur Ashe), you’ve never been there before. So I think it’s important to have a little bit more of an idea of how the tournaments work, the situations you can get into, rain delays and different things that can happen throughout the week and not freak out when they do happen.”
Shelton played against Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut on Wednesday after this issue went to press.
