Andy Roddick gives his honest opinion on Ben Shelton’s performance against Carlos Alcaraz at the French Open

Follow us on Google Discover

Ben Shelton has continued his winless run against Carlos Alcaraz after their French Open match.

Shelton received praise from Alcaraz after the match, which the Spaniard won 7-6(8) 6-3 4-6 6-4.

The defending French Open champion was not the only person to be impressed by the American, with Tim Henman surprised by Shelton.

Despite the disappointment of exiting the French Open, Shelton has sent a message to Alcaraz after their match.

Andy Roddick gives his honest opinion on Ben Shelton’s performance against Carlos Alcaraz

Alcaraz and Henman are not the only people to have been impressed by Shelton, who achieved his best result at the French Open this year.

When discussing the match on his podcast, former world number one Andy Roddick spoke about how Shelton can raise his level for Grand Slam tournaments.

“I thought Ben Shelton was great in this match, I think he is really good in Slams,” said Roddick. “His record in Slams compared to the rest of the tour I guess is what you would want it to be if you want to contend for majors. He shows up for all the majors.

“That extended format looks good on him. He played great. Beating the guy who has been the best on clay the last couple of years is a tall task, but strategically I thought Ben was fantastic. Even if he missed big forehands, he had to take them.

“He was doing a great job of attacking Carlos to the forehand with his inside out forehand and then open it up to the backhand. He created some space.

“I thought Carlos played really well. That first set goes the other way and we always say it’s just a game of inches but it really is. If Ben wins that first set, it pulls on the nerve strings a little bit and everything else.

“But Carlos is just so good on this surface. He was just able to find that space enough times. He started hitting that fadeaway backhand up the line where Ben was kind of fishing up above his shoulder and he had a hard time creating pace above the shoulder on a slow ball. I speak that from first hand knowledge. Carlos was fantastic.”

Shelton had mixed form heading into the French Open this year, but managed to turn things around to achieve his best result at the clay court major.

What is next for Ben Shelton?

Shelton will now turn his attention to the grass court season, where he has previously struggled on the ATP Tour.

Despite this, Shelton was able to raise his level to reach the fourth round of Wimbledon last year.

The 22-year-old has a busy upcoming schedule on grass courts leading up to his next major tournament, having entered three lead-up events on the surface.

Shelton has entered the same three tournaments that he played last year, where he only won one of his four matches.

Although this was not ideal for his preparation for Wimbledon last year, it means that Shelton only has 50 points to defend in Stuttgart, Queen’s and Mallorca.

Shelton will kick things off at the ATP 250 tournament in Stuttgart, which begins on June 9, where he will be the fifth seed.