Ben Shelton finished second in his Round of 16 match against World No.1 Jannik Sinner at Wimbledon on Sunday. However, he will still go down as the first American in tennis history to reach the Round of 16 in 3 out of his first 8 Grand Slam appearances.
In fact, Shelton co-incidentally shares this record with Sinner as well as 2-time Wimbledon champion, Andy Murray. Prior to the match, the former coach of the Florida Gators, Scott Perelman spoke about what makes Shelton raise his game to a bigger level at Grand Slams better than many players.
Growing up, the big-serving Florida native played a lot of American football. Apart from it being a physically grueling sport, he would often go up against opponents elder and significantly of a strong build than him. In an interview with ATP Tour, Perelman claimed that these experiences toughened up to be courageous enough to not be overawed of tough opponents or situations.
“You can tell he had no fear as a youngster. He’s playing against guys twice his size. This is another one of his gifts.
“He embraces the moment of the challenge versus having any sort of hesitation or worry or concern about how big a stage it might be or how big a moment might be. He just certainly seems to enjoy himself in those biggest moments.
“Benny is fearless under pressure. [He] has a large personality. He is the guy that comes into the room and lights it up.
“He is also the guy that loves to perform in front of large crowds. Benny also understands like the great ones do what it means to rise up in the biggest moments… Pretty good combination,” Perelman was quoted as saying in the interview.
Shelton himself once credited his stint at the NCAA level for his rise to tennis stardom. In another interview, he was quoted as saying the following:
“Maybe I am addicted to playing on the big stages. I definitely haven’t had a normal upbringing in the tennis world or first year on Tour.
“It’s kind of been a little backwards, figuring things out as I go.”
Shelton had some incredible performances at Wimbledon, winning each of his first three matches in five sets. He beat the likes of Mattia Bellucci, Lloyd Harris and Denis Shapovalov.
In the match against Sinner, Shelton did have a poor first two sets, losing 2-6, 4-6. But in the final set, the tie-break was a see-saw one, which went uptil 11-9 and could have gone either way. The American faltered badly on set point being 6-5 up and on match point in the tie break.
