"There are many things to learn on grass. I started playing on this surface late in my tennis development. There are many things to learn related to movement, style of play; things that I am learning day by day. It is a surface where I could do very well and achieve great success, but I haven't done anything yet."
Ben Shelton has very clear ideas about his game on grass courts, as the American himself admitted at the Wimbledon media day and in an interview with ATP. And to think that the young American rising star disappointed expectations on grass in the weeks preceding the Championships. Shelton seems to possess all the characteristics capable of making a player dangerous on this surface, starting with a serve capable of leaving his opponents in place.
Yet, the results are not on his side. Ben has won only three of the nine matches played on grass and, this year, the record shows a negative 1-3. Both in Stuttgart and at the Queen's Club Championships he lost in his first match, against James Duckworth and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, in three and two sets respectively. A clear victory came in Mallorca, against Rinky Hijikata before surrendering to Paul Jubb, world number 289 at the time the match was played.
"The first clear memory I have is probably the 2019 final between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. The first time I paid enough attention to a match that ended in the fifth set. When I was younger, I wasn't that interested in watching tennis.
That final, though, fascinated me," explained Shelton, revealing his first Wimbledon memory in an interview with the ATP's official website.
"There aren't many videotapes to watch my father play (Bryan Shelton, ed.), but you can find some of his matches from that year (1994, ed.) at Wimbledon. Those are the matches I saw. Obviously he played at a high level. very high that week, it was great to see him and talk to him about it," he added.
