The 2024 Dallas Open is underway at the Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex at Southern Methodist University in the Texas city. Several high-voltage clashes are to follow. This Wednesday, one of the top-seeded players Ben Shelton vs Michael Mmoh, another bright prospect, will take place. The match will start on Wednesday, February 7, not before 7 pm local time (8 pm) and tickets for the same are already available.
The ATP 250 Tour started on February 5 and will run till the 11th of the month. The top four seeds, Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul, Ben Shelton, and Adrian Mannarino respectively, have all received a ‘bye’ into the second round of the tournament. They also are ranked between 14th and 17th in the world in men’s singles. In the bottom half, Ben Shelton vs Michael Mmoh will be the second match of the draw on the day.
Michael Mmoh defeated fellow American tennis player Emilio Nava in the first round by 7-5, 6-2 to book a date with Shelton. Emilio Nava had the lead in aces and first serves but lagged behind Mmoh in every other department. The factor that made the difference was Mmoh led by a huge margin in ‘receiving points’ over Nava.
26-year-old Mmoh had the best season of his tennis career in 2023 when he defeated Alexander Zverev in the Australian Open second round. He entered the quarterfinals of the Delray Beach Open and also beat Karen Khachanov, John Isner, and Hubert Hurakacz in different tournaments. All of them are higher-ranked players than him.
Ben Shelton, on the other hand, is also having the best time of his career. He displayed his wide variety of skills at the Australian Open 2024, defeating Roberto Bautista Agut and Christopher O Connell in the first and second rounds respectively. He also grabbed headlines for his feud with World No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
Shelton eventually lost to fellow top-tier player of Dallas Open Adrian Mannarino in the third round, but not before putting up a tough contest. Mannarino won by 7-6 (7-4), 1-6, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-4.
Now, Ben Shelton vs Michael Mmoh will be a World No. 16 vs World No. 133 contest. It almost looks like an unfair fight, geared toward Ben Shelton, unless one looks at Michael Mmoh’s recent form. The 26-year-old American has been able to beat some world-class players convincingly in recent times.
However, considering all the factors in play and judging by the quality of both players and how much this win means for both of them, especially Shelton, The SportsRush predicts Ben Shelton to win in the Ben Shelton vs Michael Mmoh clash.
Ben Shelton vs Michael Mmoh: Will the match live up to the hype?
Ben Shelton and Michael Mmoh have faced each other only once before. This happened at the 2021 US Open qualifying round. Shelton won the match 7-6, 7-6, after Mmoh put up a great fight. This will be their first-ever match against each other in an ATP Tour tournament. It will be a match that might go till the last round with Mmoh giving it his all, but Shelton wins at the end. Even BetMGM Sportsbook picks Shelton as the favorite at -370 as compared to Mmoh at +265, as reported by Sportsbookwire.
The match will take place on an hard court indoors, where Mmoh has a 12-10 win-loss record. Whereas, Shelton has a 20-15 record on hard courts. The temperature in Dallas is quite chilly at the moment and is likely to remain like that tomorrow evening. The weather report suggests it will be 16 degrees Celsius, with 58 degrees humidity and 23 km/h wind speed. If the game goes long, spectators might likely bring warm clothes as it will get colder.
