Men’s Tennis has been dominated over the past few decades by Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer. None of those superstars are from the U.S., and it has been nearly a decade since the U.S. has produced a top player, the last of which was Andy Roddick. However, at just twenty years of age, Ben Shelton has opened eyes this September in the U.S. Open, which is one of four Grand Slam tournaments. Shelton will take on arguably the greatest player of all time, Novak Djokovic, in the U.S. Open Semi-Final on Friday. Shelton’s improbable run is quite the spark for U.S. tennis; however, his young career has been far from perfect.
Dan Wolken of USA Today says, “The former Florida Gator and NCAA Men’s Singles Champion, Ben Shelton, turned pro shortly after winning the title.” Shelton’s father, Bryan Shelton, was a tennis professional in the 1990s but had a mediocre career. Bryan Shelton was the coach of Florida when Ben won his NCAA Men’s Single Championship. After watching Shelton’s impressive victory over fellow American Francis Tiafoe, it is clear that Ben is a stellar athlete. His serve is unmatched and sometimes reaches 140 miles per hour. Though Ben’s ability is unmatched, he needs more experience than other pros have.
Having never stepped foot on red clay or grass courts, he went 4-11 on those surfaces. However, things began to look upward for Shelton as he reached the Australian Open QuarterFinals and played on the hard court, which he has known all his life. This explains the success he is seeing in the U.S. Open, as the tournament is played on a hard court. Although Novak Djokovic will prove to be a tall task for the twenty-year-old, Shelton has quite a lot of passion for the game that will prove beneficial when put in difficult situations on the court.
Kurt Streeter of the New York Times stated, “There is no neutral with Shelton. He pumps his fists and shouts in celebration and shows what he feels at virtually every moment of every match — often with a broad, inviting smile.” However, that smile was a look of disgust for most of my early career. Shelton had previously lost nineteen matches, and with the win earlier this week over Dominic Thiem, Shelton secured his first back-to-back victories since January. for someone who did not play in the junior circuit and any significant events that, typically, any player wanting to become a pro plays. However, his past struggles have seemed to light more fire under him these past few weeks in the U.S. Open. It is such an excellent achievement for such a young star. He is undoubtedly climbing the ranks with his past few performances.
For someone dominating the tennis world, one would think he has had a racquet in his hand for ages. However, Shelton was serious about football until the seventh grade, when Tennis became his go-to sport. Those years playing football have paid evident with the footwork and agility he uses on the court. Streeter also has this to say about watching Shelton, “During his matches in Melbourne, he flashed an eye-widening talent that gave a tennis head like me goosebumps, reminding me of the first time I saw Roger Federer.”
Speaking of Roger Federer, Shelton has signed with On, a shoe and clothing company that Federer is highly involved with. Federer must see something in Shelton, as the other tennis player on the On team is women’s Iga Swiatek, ranked number one in the world.
Overall, Ben Shelton has set the Tennis and sports worlds on fire. However, his next task is no small: second-ranked Novak Djokovic awaits him in the Semi-Finals. According to Adesina O. Koiki, Shelton had this to say about Djokovic, “It does not get much better than that,” Shelton said at the prospect of facing Djokovic. “It has been tough the last two matches, playing against Americans, but hopefully, you guys can bring it for me two days from now.” Aside from Serena Williams, U.S. tennis has been in a drought of producing high-end talent for years, and now that three U.S. men are ranked in the top twenty (and Ben Shelton is not among those yet), U.S. tennis seems to be holding serve for quite some time.
Index
Ben Shelton Makes history, reaches US Open semifinals. (n.d.). Usopen.org. Retrieved September 6, 2023, from https://www.usopen.org/en_US/news/articles/2023-09-06/2023-09-05_ben_shelton_makes_history_reaches_us_open_semifinals.html
Streeter, K. (2023, September 2). The tennis education of Ben Shelton. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/02/sports/tennis/us-open-ben-shelton.html
Wolken, D. (2023, September 3). Meet Ben Shelton, US Open semifinalist poised to become next American tennis star. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/tennis/2023/09/03/us-open-ben-shelton-rising-american-star/70758627007/
I like that you gave some background on Sheltons life and talked about him playing football before starting tennis. I thought you had good use of quotes. I like the ending sentence, it’s clever. You are missing a capital letter at the beginning of the fifth sentence of the fourth paragraph. Overall, good work. It was easy to follow.
I think a really strong portion of the article is having the key transition phrases that helped me decide what order the story went in. “Speaking of…”, and “overall” are good. I think that the intro and conclusion might need a stronger indicator in them though. I thought the article was very cohesive and thorough, and you did a good job explaining the whole story. The only bit of confusion was when you seemed to introduce Novak Djokovic in the final paragraph, even though you kind of already covered the upcoming match. Also there were some times where you mentioned that Blake is dominating the tennis world but then you also say he’s not been in the top 20. I would just keep whichever image you choose to be consistent.