Ben Shelton (born October 9, 2002) is an American professional tennis player. Shelton has a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 128 achieved on 7 November 2022. He also has a career-high ATP doubles ranking of No. 284 achieved on 31 October 2022.

Ben Shelton

Shelton at the 2022 US Open
Country (sports)	United States
Residence	Gainesville, Florida, United States
Born	(2002-10-09) 9 October 2002 (age 20) Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)[1]
Turned pro	2022
Plays	Left-handed (two-handed backhand)
College	Florida
Coach	Bryan Shelton Dean Goldfine (traveling coach)[2]
Prize money	US$268,352[3]
Singles
Career record	3–3 (50.0%)[lower-alpha 1]
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 128 (7 November 2022)
Current ranking	No. 128 (7 November 2022)[1]
Grand Slam singles results
US Open	1R (2022)
Doubles
Career record	1–1 (50.0%)[lower-alpha 1]
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 284 (31 October 2022)
Current ranking	No. 291 (7 November 2022)[1]
Grand Slam doubles results
US Open	2R (2022)
Last updated on: 7 November 2022.

Shelton won the 2016 USTA junior national championship in doubles. He played college tennis for the Florida Gators where he won the men's singles title at the 2022 NCAA Division I Tennis Championships. That same year, he was named the ITA National Player of the Year.[4]

Early and personal life

Shelton is the son of former professional tennis player and Florida Gators men's tennis coach, Bryan Shelton.[5] His mom, Lisa Witsken Shelton, was a highly ranked junior tennis player, his uncle Todd Witsken was a professional tennis player and his sister Emma played college tennis at Florida.[6] Shelton was born in Atlanta, Georgia, as his father was the-then coach of Georgia Tech's women's tennis team.[7] He currently lives in Gainesville, Florida and graduated from Buchholz High School.[8]

Junior career

As a child, Shelton did not want to play tennis and instead played American football.[6] Despite both of his parents both having connections to the game of tennis, they did not pressure him to play the sport.[6] At age 12, Shelton began playing tennis regularly and was coached by his father Bryan, who is also a college tennis coach.[2]

When Shelton turned 16, he considered playing ITF Junior tournaments abroad, but his father urged him not to do so saying: "Why do you need to travel abroad when you're not the best [player in the U.S.]?"[2] Shelton ultimately credits his father's advice to not play ITF Junior tournaments abroad as helping his tennis development because he was not constantly traveling and instead had a routine.[2]

Shelton peaked at a high of the No. 3 player in the USTA Boy's 18s division and No. 306 ITF Junior.[8] He was a finalist at the 2020 USTA Boys 18s Singles Winter Nationals and won the 2019 USTA Boys 16s Doubles Clay Court tournament.[8]

College career

In June 2020, on Father's Day, Shelton committed to play collegiate tennis for the Florida Gators, under his father, Coach Bryan Shelton.[9]

A finance major, Shelton helped lead the Gators to their first national championship.[8] Shelton had a singles record of 10-2 and won the championship-clinching match for the Gators.[8]

In 2022, Shelton shined during his sophomore year going 37-5 in singles matches and winning the NCAA Singles Championship over August Holmgren.[7] He finished the year as the No. 1 singles player in ITA rankings.[8] He was subsequently named the 2022 ITA National Player of the Year and the 2022 SEC Player of the Year.[8]

As a rising-junior, Shelton was slated to return to Florida for the 2023 school year and stated he wanted to complete his finance degree.[7] Shortly after his successful run at the 2022 Cincinnati Masters, Shelton announced he would forgo his remaining college eligibility to turn professional and continue his college education online.[10][2]

Professional career

2022: First Challenger title, ATP, Grand Slam & top 150 debut, first top-5 win

At the Georgia's Rome Challenger in July, Shelton reached his first Challenger final, losing to Wu Yibing.[11] The next week at the Indy Challenger, he reached the semifinals, highlighted by a win over world No. 103 Tim van Rijthoven.

He made his ATP Tour debut at the Atlanta Open as a wildcard, and in the first round he defeated Ramkumar Ramanathan for his first ATP win.[12] He lost his next match to the No. 2 seed John Isner in three sets.[13] Shelton received a wildcard entry into the Cincinnati Masters. In the first round, he defeated world No. 56 Lorenzo Sonego in three sets for his first win over a top-100 player.[14] In the 2nd round, Shelton faced world No. 5 Casper Ruud in his first matchup against a top-10 opponent. Shelton defeated Ruud, in straight sets, by a score of 6–3, 6–3 for his first top-10 win.[15]

On August 23, 2022, Shelton announced he was forgoing returning to college and would turn professional.[16][17] He announced that he would be represented by agent Alessandro Sant Albano, who is a part of Roger Federer's TEAM8 management firm.[2]

He also received a wildcard to appear in the main draw for his Grand Slam debut at the US Open on August 14.[18] He lost in the first round, in five sets, to Nuno Borges while also recording the second fastest serve of the US Open tournament at 139 mph in this match.[19] He also competed in doubles having paired with fellow American Christopher Eubanks. They were eliminated in the second round after defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas and Petros Tsitsipas in the first round.

He reached his third Challenger final of the year at the 2022 Tiburon Challenger after defeating top seed Denis Kudla. As a result he moved into the top 160 in the rankings on 10 October 2022. He advanced to his fourth Challenger final at the Charlottesville Men's Pro Challenger where he defeated his doubles' partner Christopher Eubanks to secure his first Challenger title. As a result he moved into the top 150 in the rankings at world No. 128 on 7 November 2022.[20]

Playing style

Shelton's best weapon is his serve. He has the ability to hit a big first serve, which averages 126 miles-per-hour.[7] He also can produce a significant amount of kick on both first and second serves.[7] A left-handed player, Shelton is powerful and consistent on both the forehand and backhand side.[7] He is comfortable moving to the net off his powerful groundstrokes to finish points. Shelton has said "I love to get to net, be able to use some of my hand skills, athletic skills and going up to get the ball (to put away overheads) is one of my favorite things to do..."[7] He has said that the serve-and-volley is an important part of his game and an area he wants to further develop.[7]

Career statistics and records

Singles

Current through the 2022 US Open.

Doubles

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 5 (2–3)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Jul 2021	M25 Champaign, USA	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Gijs Brouwer	7–6(7–4), 6–3
Loss	1–1	Jul 2022	Rome, USA	Challenger	Hard (i)	Wu Yibing	5–7, 3–6
Loss	1–2	Aug 2022	Chicago, USA	Challenger	Hard	Roman Safiullin	3–6, 6–4, 5–7
Loss	1–3	Oct 2022	Tiburon, USA	Challenger	Hard	Zachary Svajda	6–2, 2–6, 4–6
Win	2–3	Oct 2022	Charlottesville, USA	Challenger	Hard (i)	Christopher Eubanks	7–6(7–4), 7–5

Doubles: 2 (1–1)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1–0	Jul 2021	M25 Champaign, USA	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Eliot Spizzirri	Chung Yun-seong Rio Noguchi	6–4, 6–0
Loss	1–1	Oct 2021	M15 Vero Beach, USA	World Tennis Tour	Clay	Liam Draxl	Johannes Ingildsen Duarte Vale	3–6, 4–6

Record against top 10 players

Shelton's record against players who have been ranked in the top 10, with those who are active in boldface.

Player	Record	Win %	Hard	Clay	Grass	Last Match
Number 2 ranked players
Casper Ruud	1–0	100%	1–0	–	–	Won (6–3, 6–3) at 2022 Cincinnati Masters
Number 8 ranked players
John Isner	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (6–7(8–10), 6–4, 6–7(3–7)) at 2022 Atlanta
Cameron Norrie	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (0–6, 2–6) at 2022 Cincinnati Masters
Total	1–2	33%	1–2 (33%)	0–0 ( – )	0–0 ( – )	* Statistics correct as of 12 September 2022[update].

Wins over top 10 players

• He has a 1–0 (100%) record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.

#	Player	Rank	Event	Surface	Rd	Score	BSR
2022
1.	Casper Ruud	5	Cincinnati Masters, United States	Hard	2R	6–3, 6–3	229

*As of 17 August 2022^[update]

Explanatory notes

References

External links

• Ben Shelton at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Ben Shelton at the International Tennis Federation
• Florida Gators bio

Sporting positions
Preceded by Valentin Vacherot	SEC Tennis Player of the Year 2022	Succeeded by Incumbent