Ben Shelton is about to play arguably the biggest match of his career as he prepares to face Jannik Sinner in the quarter-final at Wimbledon.
Both Shelton and his compatriot, Taylor Fritz, have made it through to the last eight and Jim Courier believes American tennis is back on the up from the men’s point of view.
Fritz has used pretty much all of his nine lives to still be in the tournament and he did reach the quarter-final last year at the All England Club.
Shelton is the intriguing one, with the player coming into Wimbledon not really showing any real form to speak of on the grass following an early exit at Queen’s.
Andy Roddick shares whether Ben Shelton can beat Jannik Sinner
It’s going to be a tough ask for Shelton to beat the world number one and he might have been hoping that Dimitrov was at least fit enough to get through last night.
Now, he does have a chance though, with Sinner seemingly struggling with an injury to his elbow that has required an MRI scan.
Roddick does think it will be a tough match for Shelton tomorrow but confesses that he thinks he can cause the world’s best some problems.
He said on the Served podcast: “Props to Ben, props to Bryan Shelton. Whatever happened – and I always say grass is the toughest surface to feel comfortable on the first time and the quickest when it happens to build momentum on. It can happen in two matches.
“Pete Sampras hated grass until he didn’t. I hated grass until I didn’t. It happens very quickly.
“Props to Ben. He looked lost in Mallorca when he was playing there. He has played great. His angles on the shots are better. His shot selection is better. His insistence on running around everything is less. He is learning to pitch a ball game a bit better and spins a bit better.
“I did not see the pitch correction for Ben Shelton happening this quickly based on what I saw in Queen’s and what I saw in Mallorca.
“We need to give props there.
“It’s still at this point, even with Dimitrov exposing Jannik in that match, it’s still tough.
“Because the thing that was working the best was neutralising Sinner off the backhand side with that chip. Sinner would go big, big, big and Dimitrov would just drop the bottom out of a slice to get neutral and get in.
“I don’t know if Ben has that shot yet. I will tell you, two weeks ago, if you had said this match, I would say Sinner all day. Ben has a puncher’s chance in this match. I can’t say he is going to beat Sinner best three out of five in a major yet. But also the other thing about Ben is that he is three times the player, which is a great thing in a longer format.
“Three out of five sets, his record in slams vs his losses when it’s two out of three sets, he finds comfort in the longer format and about three per cent of Earth can say that. So there are a lot of positives going for Ben.
“I still think Sinner gets through, but I have been so impressed with the progress of Ben from two or three weeks ago to where we stand currently.
Shelton can beat Sinner to reach maiden Wimbledon semi-final
Shelton is currently number 10 in the ATP world rankings and that might well change after this tournament.
The 22-year-old is already on a career-best run at Wimbledon and he won’t want things to end just yet.
Shelton will have to win the tournament the hard way from here, with a win over Sinner likely to set up a match with Novak Djokovic and if he wins, Carlos Alcaraz will likely be in the final.
Still, he has nothing to lose and is playing so well that few eyebrows would be raised if he actually managed to beat Sinner on Wednesday.
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