Ben Shelton has been compared to Rafael Nadal following his recent clay court success.
Shelton beat Flavio Cobolli to win the ATP 500 tournament in Munich, becoming just the fifth American man to win a clay court title outside the States.
After winning his second title on the dirt, Shelton admitted that clay is becoming one of his favourite surfaces.
This is apparent to former doubles world number one Rennae Stubbs, who has suggested that clay could be Shelton’s best surface.
Rennae Stubbs explains why she thinks Ben Shelton is suited to clay
Stubbs was very impressed by what she saw from Shelton in Munich, as she heaped praise on the world number six in the latest edition of her podcast.
The six-time Grand Slam champion highlighted Shelton’s serve and backhand as two of his shots that are even more effective on clay, with Stubbs even comparing his forehand to Nadal’s.
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“I think the clay might be his surface in a lot of ways and I think there’s a couple of reasons why,” said Stubbs. “One, the serve and the kick serve. He can serve anybody off the court, it doesn’t matter what court, but his variety of speed on the serve actually really helps him.
“He’s going to hit his serve and win points on every surface, he’s going to ace people whatever, but on clay because he has that beautiful kick serve as well and he gets people off the court.
“Guess what else he has, a phenomenal forehand with so much top spin. So if you think about Rafael Nadal’s forehand and how aggressive and good it was on clay, bouncing up super high and getting out of people’s hitting zones, that’s what Ben Shelton’s doing.
“In actual fact, he has even more power in some regards to Rafa’s forehand, which is saying something! Rafa could obviously hit it big, but Benny Shelt’s forehand gets off the court, he pulls people off the court with it, it bounces up and gets out of people’s hitting zones, and the serve, so he’s going to be really hard to break.
“Also, he can hit his backhand a little bit better, because he has a little more time on the clay, and he can use his slice, and he can come into the net
“…Over five sets is a little bit different…he’s going to have to find a way to beat [Carlos] Alcaraz and [Jannik] Sinner over five sets at any major, but he is the one American that I think can break through because of these massive weapons that he has. Boy oh boy, he looked real comfortable on the clay, real comfortable.”
Ben Shelton’s potential route to the Madrid Open title
Shelton will look to continue his impressive start to the clay court season at the Madrid Open, and he could have an opportunity with so many withdrawals from the Masters 1000 tournament.
The 23-year-old has only won two of his five previous matches in the Spanish capital, but Shelton will be hoping to improve on that this year.
Some of the potential dangers to Shelton in his half of the draw include world number one Jannik Sinner, Lorenzo Musetti and Barcelona Open champion Arthur Fils.
Before Shelton can look ahead to those potential matches, he will need to focus on his opener against qualifier Dino Prizmic.
Prizmic beat Matteo Berrettini in his first round match and could be a threat to Shelton when they play for the first time on Friday, April 24.
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