Ben Shelton had never left the US. He first left the comforts of home to venture into the Courts of the Australian Open, where it is already in the quarter-finals, showing that North American tennis may have found a new star.
Less than a month after breaking into the top 100 of the ATP rankings, the 20-year-old tennis player is already virtual top 50 of the world list. A meteoric rise in 12 games to surpass the best record set by his father and one of his coaches. Bryan Shelton was a former professional tennis player who ranked 55th in the world and now coaches the University of Florida team where Ben played until last summer.
Born in Atlanta, the now tennis player was first seduced by American football and only hit the tennis courts at the age of 12. It was already clear that he had inherited some talent from his father, who refused the early internationalization of his son’s career. In August last year, three months after becoming college champion – a trial he won on a team in 2021, partnering Portugal’s Duarte Vale – the young American turned pro.
He started the 2022 season ranked 573, but entered the Cincinnati Masters to eliminate Lorenzo Sonego and Casper Ruud (current No. 5). Attending the tournament went so well for him that it prompted him to interrupt his studies – he’s still studying online entrepreneurship and international business – and bet it all on tennis. Cincinnati earned him an invitation to the main frame of the US Open, where he made his debut with a loss to Portugal’s Nuno Borges.
bet on us challengers internals and won three of the six tournaments he entered in the last six months of last year, breaking into the top 100 of the ATP rankings for the first time. It was as number 92 in the rankings that he received invitations to the Adelaide ATP (he lost on his debut, with Coco Gauff), the Auckland ATP and the Australian Open, forcing him to leave the US for the first time in his life. A fact that he himself revealed on social media. In New Zealand, he scored the first win of his career at ATP level away from home, against Sebastian Baez (41st) 7-6, 6-1 after 83 minutes of play.
The Australian Open followed, where the mighty and astute left helped him defeat promising Australian Alexei Popyrin (6-3, 7-6, 6-4) and put him face-to-face with compatriot JJ Wolf in a five-way fight set and almost four hours, for the parts of 6-7, 6-2, 6-7, 7-6 and 6-2. In the quarterfinals he is now followed by compatriot Tommy Paul, who defeated Roberto Bautista-Agut yesterday.
Get where you want in the second grand slam of his career, the talent of Ben Shelton has already convinced TEAM8, Roger Federer’s agency company, and the boy is already making headlines as “the future of North American tennis”, vying with Frances Tiafoe (17th) for the title of first black American tennis player to be able to reach the top 10, after Arthur Ashe and James Blake, the only ones to reach the top 10 in 50 years of ATP rankings.
Despite finishing 2022 as the most represented country on the ATP rankings, the US has yet to see a tennis player Made in the USA succeed in one grand slam men since Andy Roddick lifted the trophy at the US Open in 2003. And it will be a lot to ask for Ben to get his hands on his debut in Melbourne, where Novak Djokovic is still on top form. Yesterday, the Serbian defeated Alex De Minaur (6-2, 6-1 and 6-2) to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Australian tournament for the 13th time, having won nine trophies.
Source: DN
