Ben Shelton was an accomplished tennis player before he turned professional. The 21 year old won a singles title in the NCAA Division I Tennis Championships and was named Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Player of the Year as well, all while being coached by his father, former tennis player and tennis coach Bryan Shelton.
Shelton had his best performance in a grand slam tournament at the 2023 U.S. Open, defeating fellow Black American Frances Tiafoe in the quarterfinals, before losing to the eventual champion Novak Djokovic in straight sets in his first-ever grand slam semifinals match. Now, Shelton helps to improve upon last year’s success and become the first American male to win a grand slam title since Andy Roddick at the 2003 U.S. Open.
Shelton, who is the second-highest ranked American in the world at No. 13, won his first match Monday, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 over Austrian and 2020 U.S. Open champion Dominic Thiem.
“I thought it was a good start, good performance from me today,” Shelton said after the win. “There wasn’t really a category that I was unhappy with. I thought I served extremely well today.
Did a good job dictating play with my forehand, the best I hit my forehand for a while. I was 24 for 28 at the net. Can’t complain with how starts go at a Grand Slam.”
Shelton said he was not nervous and did not have butterflies during the match.
“I think after last year, the stage doesn’t get much bigger than that,” he said, referring to the match versus Djokovic. “I feel used to it now. I just felt comfortable. Used to it. Felt like I had been there before. Yeah, definitely excited. I think any chance that you get to play on Arthur Ashe is a moment that you remember forever. Yeah, I added one to the books today, and yeah, just happy with how things went out there. Yeah, I enjoyed it.”
Shelton, who is also ranked #13 at this year’s U.S. Open, was asked what stood out about last year’s success.
“I think that you learn a lot from these experiences, how best to recover from a tough five-set match, how to get yourself to sleep after playing the night session here,” he said. “How each court plays is different, whether you’re playing out on Grandstand or Court 10 or on Arthur Ashe. I think there’s a lot of things to think about, depending on the situation you’re in. If you’re someone who is unseeded and maybe you’re playing most of your matches on an outside court, you have a big run, and then suddenly you play one of the big guys on (Arthur Ashe), you’ve never been in there before. So I think that having a little bit better idea of just how the tournaments work, the possible situations that you could be in, rain delays and different things that can happen throughout the week, and not freaking out when they happen.”
Shelton played Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain Wednesday after this edition went to press.
