Ben Shelton edges Jannik Sinner in Shanghai: “Maybe I’m addicted to the big stages”

“Maybe I’m addicted to the big stages,” Ben Shelton said after his 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) win over Jannik Sinner on Tuesday night in Shanghai.

Shanghai is a Masters 1000, which means it’s actually a slightly smaller stage than the ones where he has excelled so far in his short career. In 2023, he reached the semifinals at the US Open, made the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, and was unbeaten in Laver Cup. But before this week, he was just 10-22 everywhere else.

“I’ve done things backwards, I guess,” Shelton admitted with his ever-present smile.

On Tuesday, Shelton showed that not only can he win on a big stage, he can also beat a Top 5 opponent. The American was 0-5 against players in that elite category this year. and for the first set and a half against the fourth-ranked Sinner, it looked like a pretty sure bet he was going to go 0-6.

Sinner was coming off a career week in Beijing, where he straight-stetted Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev on his way to the title. He broke Shelton in the opening game of this match, and was far more consistent than Shelton, whose first-serve percentage hovered in the low-50s, through the first set.

“He was really on top of me in the return games,” Shelton said of Sinner in the early going.

At that point, this looked like a contest between a more-polished 22-year-old and and a raw rookie still trying to figure out how to effectively use his obvious athletic gifts. Three years ago, Sinner was a similar mix of the explosive and the erratic. But with diligent work, he seemed to have left the erratic part behind in 2023.

Until the second set, that is. Serving at 1-2, Sinner suddenly couldn’t find the court. He sent a smash long, a forehand long, a forehand wide, and was broken at love. From there, Shelton’s confidence grew, his serve found the corners, and his forehand became a point-winning weapon. One of his body serves left Sinner shaking out the pain in his wrist. Serving at 5-3, Shelton squandered three set points, but his serve was there to save him again—he closed with a service winner and an ace.

Shelton carried that momentum into the first game of the third set, when he had five break points. But Sinner stabilized in time to save them all. The next 11 games were an entertaining back-and-forth of big serving, baseline slugging, and finesse play at net. If there was a hint of an opening in a rally, neither guy hesitated to take it. Shelton had a break point at 3-3, but he put a forehand into the net. Sinner had two break points at 4-3, but he put an easy backhand into the net on the first. Shelton had two more break points at 4-4, but Sinner saved them with a smash and an ace.

The match deserved a third-set tiebreaker, and it got a good one. Shelton went up 4-0 with a couple of big serves. Sinner stabilized again and won the next five points by playing more solid tennis. Again it looked like his polish and consistency would win the day. Instead, the rookie found a way to rise about that: Shelton closed with a forehand winner, a swing-volley winner, and a huge forehand return for the win.

“He’s someone I looked up to,” Shelton, who turned 21 on Monday, said of the slightly older Sinner. “He made a quick breakthrough, and he does things the right way.”

Shelton has picked a good role model in Sinner, and he took a step closer to following his path in this match, even if it is, as he says, “backwards.” It’s good to be able to win on the big stages, but it’s even better to able to beat the big opponents.