Ben Shelton was unable to break the dominance of Jannik Sinner at the Australian Open.
Shelton claimed he had an advantage against Sinner, despite the Italian being the two-time defending Australian Open champion.
However, this did not come to fruition, as Sinner comfortably beat Shelton to extend his dominance in their head-to-head to 9-1, which includes winning nine matches in a row.
Shelton has one of the best serves on the ATP Tour, but former world number one Andy Roddick believes he made an error with the shot against Sinner.
Andy Roddick claims Ben Shelton made an error with his serve against Jannik Sinner
Sinner beat Shelton, 6-3 6-4 6-4, which included breaking the American’s serve three times in the match.
This is more than any other player against Shelton at the Australian Open this year, and Roddick has suggested that he was holding back too much in the early stages of the match against Sinner.
“I would try to go through Sinner before I started mixing it up,” Roddick said on his ‘Served with Andy Roddick‘ podcast. “I think when you have that fast ball you have to throw it and see if someone can catch up to it.
“The decision is not easy and it’s not obvious but when Shelton has to defend his serve against Jannik he won 41% of second serve points. I’m not sure what his yearly total is, but it’s normal in the upper register of the 40’s, I’m guessing and on a good day maybe he can even get 60% as his serve jumps everywhere.
“So there is two lines of thought here, when you are going as a big server. It’s do I protect my second serve [by slowing down the first and making more]. That’s one way to go, but is that going to win?
I don’t know that protecting your second serve by taking something off the first serve is going to win against Jannik.
“You may not get off to a good start. It could be that Ben is a rhythm server and he likes to get into rhythm and then finds himself serving better. I think this is the match-up which bothers Ben the most, even more than Carlos [Alcaraz].
“But if I am playing Lleyton Hewitt or Andre Agassi or someone who is a great returner and I have one weapon which is elite, I’m not going to take the most extreme version of that weapon out of play early.
“I have got to think that Sinner is happy to see him hitting a couple of kicks on serve in the first game because as much as Ben wants that rhythm, I think Jannik wants to get a swing on a couple, as opposed to lunging and hitting aces.”
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Jamie Murray points out another mistake Ben Shelton made with his serve
Roddick is not the only person who believes Shelton made a mistake on his serve against Sinner, with seven-time Grand Slam doubles champion Jamie Murray pointing out another potential oversight from the American.
When reflecting on the match for TNT Sports, Murray explained why Shelton should not have served so much to the forehand of Sinner.
“I think you could see how much traffic with the serve he directed into Sinner’s forehand, which can be effective as a lefty serve, but also if you are serving into the forehand naturally the ball is going to come back cross court and then it’s into Shelton’s backhand,” said Murray. “He then has less opportunity to use his forehand first ball to dominate the point.
“From there maybe he should have been serving more down the t, get Sinner stretching and then the ball is maybe coming more down the middle of the court, so he can use his forehand.”
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Shelton will now have just over a week away from the match court, before he returns to action as the second seed at the Dallas Open.
While Sinner will look to continue his bid for a third consecutive Australian Open title, with Novak Djokovic his semifinal opponent.
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