Ben Shelton’s dream debut at the Australian Open maintains improving. The #NextGenATP American progressed to the fourth round on Saturday when he beat residence favorite Alexei Popyrin 6-3, 7-6( 4 ), 6-4.
The 20-year-old conserved all 4 break factors he encountered to end up being the 5th guy to get to the Round of 16 on his Australian Open debut in the previous one decade. The fourth gamer to achieve the task, J.J. Wolf, did so previously in the day and also will certainly additionally be Shelton’s following challenger.
One year back, Shelton wasNo 569 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and also still in university at the University ofFlorida The lefty was not yet in the leading place of his group’s schedule.
But Shelton has actually rapidly confirmed himself among one of the most harmful gamers on the circuit, with his offer and also hostile video game verifying difficult for all challengers to take care of. Despite this being his initial journey outside the United States, Shelton has actually made himself in your home in Melbourne, welcoming the group at the year’s initial significant.
The American struck 34 victors and also made simply 25 spontaneous mistakes versus Popyrin, that had actually disturbed Top 10 celebrity Taylor Fritz in the 2nd round. He transformed 2 of his 8 break factors and also won 87 percent of his first-serve indicate victory after 2 hrs inside John Cain Arena.
Shelton fractured the Top 100 for the very first time in November 2022, and also is currentlyNo 65 in thePepperstone ATP Live Rankings His following challenger, Wolf, beat fellow citizen Michael Mmoh 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 earlier in the day.
