Ben Shelton, a 20-year-old NCAA champion from the University of Florida ready to make his Australian Open debut, is brand new to international pro tennis.
The Gainesville-Atlanta-Los Angeles-Sydney-Adelaide sequence of aircraft journeys late last month that took Shelton on his maiden trip outside the United States to play tuneup events before the first Grand Slam tournament of 2023. Customs formalities. Trying out new foods. Riding on the left side of the road in vehicles.
That’s not even mentioning the on-court learning curve, which Shelton will continue to negotiate when he faces Zhang Zhizhen, a 26-year-old Chinese player who has never played in the main draw at Melbourne Park.
“It’s a whole different ballgame,” Shelton told The Associated Press in an interview. “All of them are new experiences for me. But I’m relieved to be here.”
It’s been said many times: no American man has won a Grand Slam singles championship since Andy Roddick at the 2003 U.S. Open. Shelton is among a handful of players looking to break the drought at some point. While it may take some time, breakout performances in 2022 by Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Fritz, and Brandon Nakashima showed compatriots what was possible.
Tiafoe, a 24-year-old from Maryland, reached the U.S. Open semifinals, becoming the first American to accomplish it since Roddick in 2006. Fritz, a 25-year-old from California, got into the top ten and defeated Rafael Nadal to win his maiden Masters 1000 championship. Nakashima, a 21-year-old from California, won the Next Gen ATP Finals.
“It certainly gives us a lot of hope and encouragement. It’s fantastic to watch those guys accomplish so much. “It’s something to look up to for sure,” said Shelton, who has a habit of smiling broadly when speaking. “American tennis is undeniably on the rise.
There are 13 Americans in the top 100 of the ATP, with Shelton ranking 92nd after becoming pro last year.
“He’s a fiery opponent,” said Chris Eubanks, a buddy of Shelton’s from Georgia who plays Monday in Australia. “Even when things aren’t going well, he remains confident and focused on deciding to make them go well. It’s really rare. There will be some screaming. You will hear the words ‘Vamos!’ There will be fist pumps. It makes no difference what the score is.”
Bryan Shelton, a former player who taught Ben the game and now teaches at Florida, described it as “a football mindset” derived from time spent dabbling in that sport, as well as basketball and soccer as a child. Ben didn’t start playing tennis until he was 11 years old because he wanted to go to junior events and stay in hotels like his sister, Emma, who now competes for Florida.
The United States has 14 players in the men’s bracket, a tournament-best, and 17 in the women’s bracket, which also leads all countries. (Over the last two decades, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Sloane Stephens, and Sofia Kenin have all won major championships in women’s singles for the United States.)
“The American males in their 20s, there’s a number of players that are having success and progressively going up the ranks. “They push each other,” said Michael Russell, Fritz’s coach and a former player. “Obviously, I’m prejudiced; of course, I want Taylor to perform her best. But perhaps, an American man will be a Grand Slam champion again soon.”
Shelton, who left Florida after his second season and is now pursuing a business degree online, is content to take things slowly.
He is more concerned with process-related goals than with rankings or outcomes — even though he did rise 471 in 2022, which included a victory against French Open and U.S. Open runner-up Casper Ruud and three consecutive Challenger Tour championships.
“He’s had a lot of success, but he still has a lot of space for development,” Bryan Shelton said of his son. “He understands.”
Ben experienced fewer surprises on the court than he did off it during his first taste of life on tour.
“I’d say the intriguing element for me was the way athletes take care of everything – their bodies, how they eat, how they warm up, the work they do in the gym every day,” Shelton said. Seeing how much it takes to perform at the level that these men do.”