Boris Becker names two American ‘super coaches’ Ben Shelton should consider hiring

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Ben Shelton enjoyed the best year of his career in 2025, but there’s still room for improvement.

Winning the Canadian Open and reaching his second Grand Slam semifinal this year, Shelton peaked at a career-high ranking of fifth in the world.

However, his disappointing ATP Finals campaign (0-3) showed that Shelton has a long way to go before he is ready to challenge for ‘big’ titles on a regular basis.

Weighing in with his thoughts on the young American, tennis legend Boris Becker has named two ‘super coaches’ that Shelton should consider adding to his team.

Boris Becker thinks Ben Shelton should consider hiring Pete Sampras or Andre Agassi

During the latest episode of ‘Becker Petkovic’, Becker had this to say about the 2025 year-end number nine.

“So for me, one of the favourite players of the year. I like his personality, I like his charisma, I like the way he plays tennis,” he said.

“But I think he could play tactically much better. And the boy is number five in the world. His coach is his father, who was also a world-class player and has a lot of knowledge about the sport.

“But I think, if I may ask the question, that Ben Shelton should think about a super coach. I think of [Andre] Agassi, I think of [Pete] Sampras…”

Shelton is currently coached by his father, Bryan Shelton, a former top 100 player on the ATP Tour.

Neither of the two names Becker mentioned are coaching full-time right now, although Shelton and Agassi did work together at the Laver Cup earlier this year.

Becker is a big fan of the American’s personality and wants to see him succeed.

“The player totally excites me with how he plays tennis. I also understand how he plays tennis, with the serve and volley, the aggression,” he said,

“We need charismatic, good personalities, where the boys and girls in the world go to watch, cheer them on. Turn on the channel to watch them. That’s why I’m a big fan of Ben Shelton.”

He did, however, share that Shelton and his father have been known to disagree with each other over one key area of his game.

“I talked to his father a bit, and they are still discussing his game, because Ben wants to convince his father that he can also play well from the baseline,” said Becker.

“His father says he needs to go to the net more.

“You could see that in the match [at the ATP Finals], that for my taste he plays too much from the baseline and goes too little to the net.”

Becker’s co-host, Andrea Petkovic, asked if that means that the German is siding with Bryan Shelton.

“Right,” said Becker.

While Becker believes Agassi or Sampras could be of use to Shelton, Petkovic thinks the 23-year-old should look elsewhere…

Andrea Petkovic had a dream of Boris Becker guiding Ben Shelton to a Grand Slam title

The former top 10 player said she had a dream about Becker joining forces with Shelton.

“I texted you a few weeks ago. I dreamed that Boris Becker would become Ben Shelton’s coach and he would then win the next Grand Slam and be the first to break through the [Jannik] Sinner/[Carlos] Alcaraz supremacy,” said Petkovic.

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner’s Grand Slam streak

“Then, I immediately wrote to you, if that really should happen, I would like to have a new job as a witch or fortune teller, or something like that.

“But I think this is a very good dream.”

It remains to be seen if Petkovic’s dream will come true, but you certainly won’t want to miss any of the action when Shelton heads to Melbourne next year.

The 2026 Australian Open is scheduled to begin on Monday, January 12.