Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton clash in an all-American second-round battle on Saturday at the Indian Wells Masters in the California desert. Fritz is the defending champion of this 1,000-point tournament.
Last week Taylor Fritz earned himself a spot in the top five for the first time. The last time an American man accomplished that, it was way back in 2009 and the player was 2003 U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick. Of course, Fritz is the defending Indian Wells champion. He beat an injured Rafael Nadal last year to nab the title, so he has some work to do in the next week to maintain his ranking.
The world No. 5 will face a newcomer to the professional tour. Last summer, NCAA champion Ben Shelton played (and won) his first tour-level match at the Atlanta Open. A handful of professional tournaments later and the youngster made his way to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. He’s had a couple of first-round losses since his Melbourne debut, but he was impressive in his opening match this week against Fabio Fognini.
Fritz and Shelton have not played before, although that is hardly surprising considering Shelton has played a total of 16 ATP matches. At No. 41 in the world, Shelton is certainly the statistical underdog. Despite the fact that the 20 year-old has won a pile of Challenger tournaments, he hasn’t really gotten to the business end of a main-tour tournament yet outside of Melbourne. Fritz is five years older with hundreds more matches than Shelton and plenty of experience navigating big moments. Nonetheless, Shelton might just have a chance on Saturday.
First, there is the younger American’s big lefty serve–a legitimate weapon even against an opponent in the top five. Then there is the intangible that Fritz has moments of startling inconsistency for a player with as much talent as he has. His last two Grand Slam appearances, for example, resulted in a wild first-round ouster at the hands of qualifier Brandon Holt (U.S. Open) and a shocking second-round loss to Alexei Popyrin at the Australian Open.
Fritz is still the favorite, but Shelton could well make the defending champion fight for it.
Cheryl pick: Fritz in 3
Ricky pick: Fritz in 2
Great match up…but Fritz in 2