After a gripping practice session with Grigor Dimitrov, American tennis star Ben Shelton is ready to start his Miami Open 2024 campaign. His opponent in the second round is Spanish player Martin Landaluce. Landaluce is an 18-year-old up-and-coming player, who beat fellow Spaniard Jaume Munar in the first round.
Martin Landaluce is a graduate from Rafael Nadal Academy in Mallorca, Spain. His style of play too is reflective of learnings he took from the 22-time Grand Slam winner. He was even taking a practice session from Nadal and shared a few words with him. In a video from last year, shared by ATP Challenger Tour, Landaluce was shown a video of him and Nadal playing together. Looking at it and at Nadal play, here’s what Landaluce said:
“Oh! This point was good. He [Nadal] was destroying the ball here, he was destroying it. Nah he’s too good. He’s too good. He was beating me like he was winning every point. He was hitting everything. No no no, he wanted to destroy me,” said Landaluce.
The then-17-year-old was absolutely in awe of Nadal. He couldn’t believe how good Nadal was against him. He had also mentioned Carlos Alcaraz subsequently, and praised both of those world-class Spanish players, not only for their achievements but also for the kind of person they are.
“I’ve practised with both [Nadal and Alcaraz] many times, they’re such good persons in and off the court. I really take a lot of things about them. They’re such amazing persons and it’s good to practice with these kind of because you get a lot of things from them,” continued Landaluce.
“He wants to destroy me”
17-year-old Martin Landaluce learning things the hard way in practice with @RafaelNadal#ATPChallenger | @rnadalacademy pic.twitter.com/biPUacOlVt
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) October 4, 2023
Landaluce is extremely inspired by Nadal, and wants to walk in his footsteps. This could be beneficial since Nadal and Shelton are both southpaws (strong with their left hand). Having played with Nadal, Landaluce can use those learnings against Shelton. He has already beaten another graduate from Rafael Nadal academy, Jaume Munar by 6-3, 1-6, 7-5.
If Nadal wasn’t enough, Alcaraz’s meteoric rise in recent years and at age 20, will surely give Landaluce more encouragement. Although Munar is his first ATP and Masters win, Landaluce is already a Junior Grand Slam winner (2022 US Open) and an ITF World Tennis Tour winner. He beat Gilles-Arnaud Bailly 7-6(7-3), 5-7, 6-2, and Khumoyun Sultanov 6-0, 6-3 in the finals of both those tournaments respectively. Martin Landaluce currently ranks 360, an improvement from last year’s 672.
Martin Landaluce vs Ben Shelton match details
In the Miami Open 2024, Martin Landaluce will face Ben Shelton for the first time in his career. Although it’s advantage for Shelton, Landaluce will apply his aforementioned tactics to win and earn his first ever 3rd round finish in an ATP Tour. They will play each other on the outdoor hard courts of the Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida.
Their match will start at around 3:50 pm local time in Miami on 23rd March Saturday. It will air live on the Tennis Channel in the US and Sky Sports in the UK. The weather in Miami is moderate, with 25 degrees Celsius temperature, 32 km/h wind speed, and 85% humidity. It should be a good match, which Shelton might win in the end.
