Ben Shelton has a very interesting approach to things as the American claims he isn't bothered too much about his actual ranking but only follows the race because that gives him a clear picture of how well he has been doing during a particular season.
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Earlier this month, the 2025 Australian Open semifinalist reached a career-high ranking of No. 12 in the world. Now, the 22-year-old is in the midst of a promising Indian Wells Masters run, where he is due to meet Jack Draper in the quarterfinal.
Following a 7-6 (6) 6-1 win over Brandon Nakashima, a reporter acknowledged to Shelton that he was knocking on the top-10 doors and asked if becoming the top-ranked player in the game was his next goal.
"No. Honestly, I don't look at the rankings at all. I think about the race. I think about my body of work from January 1 and where I can be at the end of the year, and that's pretty much it," the world No. 12 explained.
"I don't think about defending points. I don't think about points coming off from the year before. It's just, like, everybody has the same 12 months, same tournaments to play, same amount of work. Let's see where we are in November."
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Where Shelton stands in the race?
In the rankings list which is officially called "Race to Turin," the two-time ATP champion sits at No. 5 with already 1,300 points secured. Ahead of him, there are only Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz and Felix Auger-Aliassime.
If Shelton potentially reaches the Indian Wells final, he could possibly find himself inside the top-3 on the list on Monday.
Anyway, he has positioned himself well early to be among the top-8 players with the most collected points in 2025 and make his ATP Finals debut later this year.
But for now, Shelton will probably stay focused on his next opponent Draper and landing his first Indian Wells title.
