Ben Shelton’s meteoric rise in 2023 has continued with his best-ever result outside of a Grand Slam.
Shelton, who was a quarterfinalist at the Australian Open and semifinalist at the U.S. Open earlier this season but had not lived up to those standards outside of slams, punched his ticket to the quarters of the Rolex Shanghai Masters by beating Jannik Sinner 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) on Tuesday evening. The 21-year-old (whose birthday was on Monday) prevailed after two hours and 30 minutes to set up an all-American showdown against Sebastian Korda.
Both players had chances in the third set before going to a decisive tiebreaker. Sinner, the recent Beijing champion, saved all eight of the break points he faced; Shelton fought off two. A see-saw affair in the ‘breaker saw Shelton surge to a 4-0 lead only to lose five points in a row and then suddenly string together three straight to clinch victory.
“This is a pretty crazy atmosphere,” Shelton said afterward. “To think that a year and a half ago I was in college and a year ago playing Challengers, now I am on Center Court in Shanghai with the crowd singing happy birthday. It is one of those pinch-me moments.
“I had a lot of belief in my ability to serve and hang tough and to make it deep in sets. I trusted my fitness levels, being able to go the distance. That gave me a lot of confidence. My serve wasn’t working that well in the first set; I felt that he was really on top of me. I really started to find my groove and had one of my best serving days in the second and third sets.”
The world No. 20 is joined in the last eight by Korda, Hubert Hurkacz, and Fabian Marozsan. Korda defeated Francisco Cerundolo 7-5, 7-6(6), Hurkacz outlasted Zhizhen Zhang in a third-set tiebreaker, and Marozsan upset Casper Ruud 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-4.
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