Ben Shelton: A happy warrior’s year of learning

Some tennis pros love the job for reasons beyond the pure joy of winning. It may be the independence of the globetrotting life. The pure adrenalin rush of competition. The fame. The money. . . The thing that gets Ben Shelton most righteously stoked is that he gets to strut his stuff before large, animated—and frequently lubricated—crowds.

“That’s the coolest thing about being in the position I’m in,” Shelton, once a phenom, now a 22-year old star, told a small group of reporters on an early December trip to New York. “Being able to play in front of people who are passionate about what I’m doing.”

The showman gene is easily disregarded when it comes to evaluating a talent, but there’s great value in relishing the limelight, and creating a dynamic relationship with the crowd. Great for the fans, great for the player. That makes Shelton a happy warrior. For the sake of contact think of him as more Alcaraz, less Sinner.

For Shelton, showmanship isn’t a skill—it’s a gift. “I never really thought about it too much,” Shelton confessed. “I guess it’s something that I just had. There’s a million other things I can work on and improve upon, but being able to handle a crowd, or play in front of a crowd, isn’t one of them.”

That love of the limelight bodes well for the future if Shelton, a 6-foot-4 southpaw, continues to excite crowds with fireball serves, explosive groundstrokes, and a bruisingly physical game—all while grinning and communicating that he’s having the time of his life. He did plenty of that in 2024, but it was also a season of fits and starts, a year of learnings.

Shelton started the year ranked No. 17. He sank as low as No. 23 but a runner-up effort in Basel helped him finish the year at No. 21. He then took a painful Davis Cup singles loss—squandering four match points in a third-set tiebreaker—to underdog Thanasi Kokkinakis.

Asked in December what “lesson” Shelton took from that experience, he laughed and replied: “Don't lose the 24/22 tiebreaker (actually, it was 16-14) If you're playing for the United States of America and it's on your chest. Don't lose the match.”

When Plan A isn’t working, it’s easy to just keep pounding your head against the wall. I had some of that last year. I had some rough patches. But as you mature you learn to adjust, how to turn a bad day into a gritty win. Ben Shelton

Such matches are novelties, just as easily won as lost. By contrast, Shelton regards his US Open clash with compatriot Frances Tiafoe as a more nuanced, “educational” experience. Back in 2023, Shelton was pure fire, and he logged a fairly straightforward four-set win over Tiafoe in the quarterfinals of their home major. But in a heavily hyped, third-round rematch this year, Tiafoe found his A-game and avenged the loss. It was a riveting, high-quality battle and a high point in the USTA’s very public drive to create a more diverse, popular game.

That match underscored the truism that, to become an elite player, you need to know how to win even when you’re not at your best—or when the other guy is. Shelton knew that, of course, but knowing it and doing it are two different things. Afterward, Shelton realized that, as in other “learning experience” matches, he didn’t adjust well to Tiafoe’s best asset on the day—his lights-out return game. Instead of maneuvering around his rival, Shelton just tried to bring the heat and blast through him.

“A lot of the guys on tour are pretty superhuman,” Shelton said. “I hit it 148 miles an hour—but I miss my spot and they hit it back. They hit it with a lot of quality, and it's at my feet. So a lot of times, (serve) speed isn't the answer.”

Some of the other instructive losses for Shelton were at the hands of crafty Adrian Mannarino (Australian Open, third round), and fellow power server Arthur Fils (Tokyo, quarterfinals). He was also 0-3 against World No. 1 Jannik Sinner. No crime in that, but the straight sets loss in the fourth round at Wimbledon was disappointing, given how devastating Shelton’s serve can be on grass.

Shelton is like many other young, aggressive players who embrace risk and sometimes crash and burn. Greater consistency is the challenge for such players. Shelton said he’s made progress in that area because of his determination, even when he’s struggling and unable to work out solutions in real time.

“It’s just being competitive. I don’t let myself go away,” he said, noting that having an outstanding serve is a curse as well as a blessing for a young, impetuous player. “You can get away with a lot (due to the serve), but when Plan A isn’t working, it’s easy to just keep pounding your head against the wall. I had some of that last year (as evidenced by the last match with Tiafoe). I had some rough patches. But as you mature you learn to adjust, how to turn a bad day into a gritty win.”

Shelton is paying more attention to his return game lately, citing advice given by those other fearsome American servers, John Isner and Reilly Opelka. They told Shelton that if you were only breaking serve 5% to 7% of the time, you qualify as a servebot. “I was under 10% in 2023, and am at 15% this year,” Shelton said. “I’d like to get that number higher.”

It’s an understandable goal. Somehow, being a happy warrior and a bot just don’t go hand-in-hand.