Ben Shelton has become the newest member of the ATP Masters 1000 club.
The 22-year-old arrived in Toronto after commencing the North American hard court swing at the Citi Open in Washington D.C.
Shelton reached the semifinals in America’s capital, but he went two steps further at the Canadian Open.
On Thursday the 22-year-old engaged in an entertaining battle with Karen Khachanov for the title, and Ben Shelton triumphed in Toronto after coming from a set down to emerge victorious.
Ben Shelton says he was getting ‘crazy’ amounts of slice and spin on his serve in the Canadian Open final
Shelton arrived on the ATP Tour and immediately made his presence felt with his thunderous serve.
He has continued to evolve this part of his game in his three years on tour, and Shelton’s serve was a key factor in his victory over Khachanov in Toronto.
The American won 80% of his first serve points and he was particularly impressed with how he served in the latter stages of the Canadian Open final, which he discussed post-match.
“I felt in that last game my slice serves were moving like 10 feet left to right,” he said. “I don’t know what it was, slight change in my ball toss or swing speed, and I was getting a crazy amount of bend on the serve. So I kind of just stuck with that.
“Stuck with the slider serves, whether it was into the body or to the forehand or to the backhand, I was just trying to make that ball move left to right.
“I’d been hitting a lot of fastballs throughout the match, a lot of straight balls, and I thought he was returning that serve pretty well. That kind of was my approach to going through my service points.
“On returns, I was just trying to be really aggressive with my footwork, find forehands, try to get to neutral, and get to attack. And, yeah, I hit one screamer return at the end of the tiebreak, but just tried to flip the switch.
“I lost the first tiebreak, not being tentative, but he overpowered me. He played bigger than I did, he hit better shots than I did, and I just didn’t want to go out the same way.”
Ben Shelton shares the advice his coach and father Bryan Shelton gave him to win the Canadian Open
Shelton’s second ATP meeting with Khachanov was a titanic battle with the Canadian Open title on the line.
The Russian made the better start to the match and he was using his heavy forehand to push Shelton back behind the baseline.
But some advice from his coach and father Bryan Shelton helped the three-time ATP title winner turn the match around. “He was right. Karen was bullying me around the court,” Shelton said about his father’s words of wisdom.
“The way he hit his forehand tonight, the way he was cutting off the court, the way he was serving, it felt like I had a freight train coming at me. So it was uncomfortable to move forward.
“The ball was coming at me even faster. But I started being able to redirect, get some big shots off of my own, and kind of flip the momentum of that match. So that was huge for me.
“I love the way that he coaches me. He usually leaves stuff up to me. He gives me a lot of suggestions. He knows me better than anyone in the world, so he’s well qualified to give me those suggestions.”
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