Ben Shelton’s Sunshine Double was a disappointment, so he is hoping to bounce back on a less favorable surface.
Clay may not be as conducive to his game as faster surfaces, but Shelton is no stranger to success on the slow stuff. In fact, he is a former title winner of the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship. The ninth-ranked American lifted the trophy at this tournament in his only previous appearance two years ago, beating Brandon Nakashima, Tomas Martin Etcheverry, and Frances Tiafoe along the way.
Shelton makes his return as the top seed and will kick off his campaign against Zhizhen Zhang on Wednesday afternoon. They split their two previous encounters; Shelton prevailed in a fifth-set tiebreaker at the 2023 Australian Open before Zhang got the job done 6-2, 6-4 on the red clay of Rome in 2024.
As those results suggest, clay is the surface on which Zhang would choose to face Shelton. Unfortunately for the Chinese veteran, he has been plagued by injuries and heads into this week at No. 263 in the rankings. He did well to defeat Jack Pinnington Jones 6-1, 6-3 on Monday, but Shelton is obviously a much different customer.
Conditions in Houston are by no means slow for a clay court, and Shelton should take even more confidence from the fact that he is a former champion. The 23-year-old has never lost in Houston — he probably won’t on Wednesday, either.
Pick: Shelton in 2
WWW?
It sounds reasonable. However, I’m into championing the underdog and think that if Zhang has a good day and Shelton gets overconfident because of his Houston record or feels the pressure of expectations more because of that, Zhang might carry the day. He’s not expected to win and has nothing to lose.
De Minaur lost his opening match in Acapulco to a qualifier despite the fact he was in excellent form going in and the last two times he competed in Acapulco he won the championship.
Nothing against Ben, I enjoy his enthusiasm and he has a decent game all right.
I can see the potential for an upset here, Zhang has played Shelton well before for whatever reason, however in R1 it was Pinnington Jones who handed it to him, of course Shelton has been off the boil of late, Shelton should probably still get this done, Shelton in 3, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.
It’s not Pinnington-Jones’ fault because all births are a lottery, but his name always reminds me of the old Not The Nine O’Clock News spoof on a toff called Nigel Incubator-Jones…
Big Ben in 3
Result: Shelton 7-6(5), 7-6(3)
Very close! Both good players.