Ben Shelton has continued to establish himself as America’s best player on the ATP Tour over Taylor Fritz.
Shelton and Fritz were both entered into the ATP 500 tournament in Munich this year.
However, as he suggested could be the case, Fritz withdrew from the Munich tournament to continue rehabbing his knee injury.
With Fritz absent from the tournament, Shelton won the title in Munich and he has already done something twice this year that his compatriot has not done once in four years.
Ben Shelton has won two more ATP 500 titles in 2026 than Taylor Fritz has in four years
Shelton has already won two titles this year, both of which have been at ATP 500 level.
The other actually came at the Dallas Open, where Shelton saved championship points to beat Fritz in the final.
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This was the closest Fritz has come to winning an ATP 500 title since 2022, when he won his only title at this level in Tokyo.
Fritz has won double the amount of titles that Shelton has in his career so far, but only two of his 10 tournament wins have come above ATP 250 level.
This is in comparison to Shelton, who has won most of his titles at ATP 500 level and is also the title holder of the Masters 1000 tournament in Canada.
Fritz also has a significantly worse final record than Shelton, winning just 50% of his championship matches, compared to Shelton’s 71.4% success rate.
| Level of titles | Ben Shelton | Taylor Fritz |
| Grand Slam titles | 0 | 0 |
| ATP 1000 titles | 1 | 1 |
| ATP 500 titles | 3 | 1 |
| ATP 250 titles | 1 | 8 |
| Titles won in the past 12 months | 3 (1xATP 1000, 2xATP 500) | 2 (Both ATP 250) |
How do Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz’s Grand Slam records compare?
Shelton and Fritz’s respective Grand Slam records also make for interesting reading, as they both look to end America’s drought without a men’s singles Grand Slam champion.
Fritz reached the US Open final in 2024, something Shelton has never done before, but his overall record is worse than his compatriot’s.
Shelton has a higher win-loss record than Fritz at three of the four majors, and is equal in terms of percentage at the French Open.
| Grand Slam | Ben Shelton’s Win-loss record | Ben Shelton’s best result | Taylor Fritz’s Win-loss record | Taylor Fritz’s best result |
| Australian Open | 15-4 (79%) | Semifinal (2025) | 19-10 (64%) | Quarterfinal (2024) |
| French Open | 4-3 (57%) | Fourth Round (2025) | 10-9 (53%) | Fourth Round (2024) |
| Wimbledon | 8-3 (73%) | Quarterfinal (2025) | 18-9 (67%) | Semifinal (2025) |
| US Open | 9-4 (69%) | Semifinal (2023) | 20-10 (67%) | Final (2024) |
The next Grand Slam tournament is the French Open, where Fritz may not even be playing and Shelton will look to improve on his best previous result of reaching the fourth round.
However, previous results suggest that the US Open is Shelton and Fritz’s best opportunity to disrupt Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner’s Grand Slam dominance this year.
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