Ben Shelton, the American with the dazzling serve, returns to the open

It all started with a simple text message that, like Bryan Sheltons memory serves him, went something like this:

“That could have been very interesting,” wrote his then 20-year-old son, Ben, shortly after winning a fifth-set tiebreak against Zhizhen Zhang at last year’s Australian Open, clinching the match in the first round.

If it hadn’t been for that victory, in a match that started in the morning and ended under the lights in the evening Shelton after surviving a heat delay, a rain delay and a match point, he might never have had the breakout season he had last year.

“I’m not sure I remember it that way, because it is did is going to be pretty interesting,” Shelton said on the phone shortly after he and his father traveled from their home in Florida to Brisbane, Australia, in late December to kick off the 2024 season with a pre-Australian Open warm-up tournament. Shelton, however, did remember the unrecoverable serve he hit at 4-5 and 30-40 down in the fifth set.

Shelton left last year’s Australian Open, his first trip abroad, as a quarter-finalist after succumbing to his friend and compatriot Tommy Paul. By the end of the season, Shelton had reached the semifinals of the United States Open along with the three best players in the world – Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev – and had cracked the ATP’s top 15. The young American had started 2023, his first full year on tour. , barely ranked in the top 100.

Shelton is still a work in progress. Despite a serve that reached a top speed of 140 miles per hour at last year’s US Open, he struggled to adapt to clay and grass courts. It’s something he and his father, who left the head coach at the University of Florida last spring to coach his son full-time, have worked diligently on during the offseason.

“The most important thing for him is exercise,” said Bryan Shelton, a tour player who played mainly in the 1990s. “It’s efficiency, being more balanced. Today’s men’s game is all about the serve and the return and creating opportunities to get forward, which Ben can do.

There is a delicate dance when parents coach their children, but the Sheltons have handled it well. Ben played singles for his father during his freshman and sophomore years at Florida, leading the Gators to win the 2021 NCAA team championship and win the NCAA singles title a year later. Shortly afterwards he became a professional.

“It can be tough at times, but every coach has to communicate well with his player,” Bryan said, adding that his son is the most competitive person he has ever met. “I just have to be aware that I am the father and that he will receive some things well and others not. Sometimes it’s better to ask a question. That way he takes ownership of it and can stay in the zone. We call it paralysis by analysis.”

The Sheltons often communicate staccato. A few words from Bryan, at court, are as effective as a lecture.

“I think I have a pretty good understanding of tennis, the way I want to play, the way I want to compete,” says Ben, a college finance student who says he schedules weekly calls with a venture capitalist who helped in the establishment of his management agency. . “Sometimes I don’t need a full sentence because I can use context clues and pick up everything my dad is trying to say. Sometimes it’s better to hear just one word and move on than to have to listen to a whole story.

Shelton is aware he has critics, especially those who don’t appreciate his on-court bluster or hang-up phone imitations during last year’s U.S. Open. But he has no intention of changing his behavior.

“I don’t know that you’ll see anything different from me this year,” he said. “I just want to be my authentic self. I’m not going to change because of who’s out there or what people say.”

For Shelton, it’s all about progress.

“I’m just focused on improving my game, developing and moving forward,” he said shortly before heading to a practice session with Rafael Nadal, the one player Shelton most wants to face in a match. “I want to have a better year overall, a good body of work. The show goes on.”