Ben Shelton Exposes Dark Side of Star Culture in Tennis After Launching Record 153 MPH Serve at Wimbledon

Ben Shelton made history at Wimbledon recently by delivering the fastest serve ever recorded at the prestigious tournament, in which he clocked a remarkable 153 mph. However, the mainstream media in both the UK and the USA seem to have provided hardly any coverage of this remarkable achievement. Even Wimbledon itself fell short of giving Shelton the recognition he deserved.

This lack of attention could be attributed to the simultaneous high-profile matches, including Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner’s showdowns on the same day and Andy Murray’s emotional retirement on Centre Court. Additionally, Shelton’s record-breaking serve occurred on Court 2, which may have contributed to the oversight.

Similarly, the BBC and global broadcasters share the blame for this lack of coverage. Fans in many countries were unable to watch Shelton’s historic serve live or catch match highlights. The focus on more prominent matches continues to be an issue and in this case, reflects badly on Wimbledon and its organisers.

Many tennis lovers pointed out on social media that they did not even know about this fabulous serve by Shelton until they saw it on their feed or another apps making it go viral.

As a result, it had to take a Ben Shelton doing something this spectacular to show the bias the ATP Tour, tournament organisers, sponsors, broadcasters and prominent media houses could have, towards bigger stars of the game. Some of these stars, like Novak Djokovic, are also victims of bias, according to fans. This makes the situation more tricky and troublesom.

Perhaps, the broadcasters could have been more alert and highlighted this Shelton feat in between a match for a minute or so, for the sake of their viewers. Ironically, Coco Gauff’s coach Brad Gilbert, who is on commentary at Wimbledon 2024, did not get to spot the moment either, which is a huge embarrassment seeing the way the tournament is being broadcast.

Despite the limited media coverage, fans have been vocal in their praise for Shelton’s performance at Wimbledon. Seeing his athleticism and potential at the age of 20, many believe that tennis’ future is in great hands.

However, Shelton has challenges ahead of him in the tournament. There are opponents who may play his serve very well and so, he has got to be ready. At the time of writing this report, in his third round match against Canada’s Denis Shapovalov, Shelton lost the first set 6-7 but was leading 5-2 in the second set. The fact that both these players have booming serves and are left-handers, will make this match surely more interesting.