Chomp the competition: Ben Shelton no longer needs to fake it to make it after life-changing summer break

WATCH: Tennis Channel Live discusses 2022 NCAA singles champion Ben Shelton turning pro after two years at the University of Florida.

Deep in the third set of their NCAA men's singles championship match, Ben Shelton shouted at his opponent on the other side of the court: “Why you staring me down?"

At 19, he was already the No. 2 college player in the country. Despite being only a sophomore at the University of Florida (UF), Shelton had quickly established himself as a big-match player, helping lead the school’s men’s tennis team to historic victories.

The ATP Tour breakthroughs, big stadiums, and flood of new social media followers—that would all still be a few months away. Shelton’s immediate concern on this warm Champaign, Ill. day in May was closing out his opponent, August Holmgren, a fifth-year senior from Denmark.

The American had rallied from a set down and took a 4-2 lead in the decider. At 30-15, Shelton ran down a drop shot, racing up to the net and rifling a lefty backhand winner that cut across the court at an almost impossible angle. When he stalked back to the baseline amid raucous applause from the Gators supporters to return the next serve, Holmgren wasn’t ready.

He was still up at the net trying to comprehend exactly what had just happened, until Shelton’s shout jolted him back to life. Holmgren called back:

"It was just too good. Just too good."

A few minutes later, Shelton was crowned the NCAA men’s singles champion after clinching the match 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. That victory also secured him a crucial main draw wild card into the US Open, a prize that signaled big things to come for the sophomore.

But over the course of one career-changing summer break, the 19-year-old won’t make his Grand Slam debut as the best American college player in the nation. Instead, he’ll do so as a hot topic of interest with a Top 5 victory under his belt, and a newly-minted ATP pro with the eyes of the tennis world staring him down.

“After sitting down with my parents this weekend, I have decided to forgo my last two years of eligibility and turn pro,” Shelton wrote in a social post on Tuesday.

“While this wasn’t an easy decision, I’m excited for the next chapter in my career.”

Since his days as a touted junior in Gainesville, it always seemed to be a matter of ‘when’ Shelton, the son of a former ATP pro, would go pro himself, rather than ‘if’. But the ‘when’ is crucial too, as the transition between college tennis and the pro ranks can be difficult to navigate.

Turn pro too early, and players risk losing out on years of high-quality coaching, valuable competitive match play, and possibly a college degree. Turn pro too late, and players can spend years playing catch-up with the rest of their Tour peers, stunting their progress.

Once the UF spring semester was over, Shelton set out to answer the ‘when’ question. Days after the last match of his college career, the teenager was on a plane from Champaign to Little Rock, Ark. to begin the first in a string of ATP Challenger events.

“I’m just a college guy out here having fun, so I don’t put too much stress on my matches,” Shelton later told press in Atlanta. “Obviously I am focused and I want to do the best I can, but it’s not do or die for me out here.”

In his player box, dad Bryan Shelton, a tennis coach, and Dean Goldfine, from USTA Player Development, were regular fixtures.

Far from the domineering “tennis dad” archetype, Bryan himself reached a career-high world No. 55 on the ATP Tour in 1992 after playing college tennis for Georgia Tech. His coaching CV includes over two decades of elite coaching: Shelton was the women’s tennis head coach at Georgia Tech in Atlanta from 1999 to 2012, until UF hired him as the head coach of men’s tennis and the family relocated to Gaineville. Ben’s older sister Emma, 21, plays for UF too, and during his own two-years as a Gator his dad was the coach.

“It’s become a really good situation where he doesn’t even have to tell me things and I know what he’s thinking or he knows what I’m thinking,” Ben said of his dad. “He’s really helped me work on developing my game and not worry about quick success, but being in it for the long run.”

Ranked No. 547 at the start of the summer, Ben seemed to shave off about a hundred spots from his ranking every other week. A semifinal in Little Rock—his second-ever Challenger event—followed by a final at Georgia’s Rome Challenger from qualies—earning him an ATP main draw wild card into the Atlanta Open—the results came quickly for the 19-year-old with a penchant for highlight-reel worthy hot shots, full of self-confidence who actually looked like he was having a good time competing.

But it was the way he regularly battled past players ranked several hundred places higher that proved Shelton could really hang with the pros.

“I trust myself with my serve and I trust myself with my athleticism. So those are two things that I think set me apart,” he said. “I love to get to the net. I’m able to use some of my hand skills, athletic skills and going up to get the ball. It’s one of my favorite things to do.”

After acing his ATP Tour debut in his hometown of Atlanta, now No. 281-ranked Shelton played one of the matches of the tournament against six-time champion John Isner, giving him plenty to deal with in a highly entertaining 7-6 (8), 4-6, 7-6 (3) defeat.

“He’s an incredible talent. I watched him play a year and a half ago in college and saw how athletic and talented he is,” Isner said afterwards. “I’m going to be a big fan of his in the future…

“Truthfully, I don’t see myself beating him anytime in the future. I hope I don’t have to play him again.”

By the time Shelton arrived in Cincinnati, both ‘when’ and ‘if’ seemed to be already foregone conclusions.

Shelton won his first and second ATP Masters 1000 matches in head-turning fashion, with wins over No. 56 Lorenzo Sonego and a 6-3, 6-3 stunner over world No. 5 Casper Ruud—a match in which Shelton didn’t face a break point against the Roland Garros finalist.

Soon, eagle-eyed fans had spotted TEAM8 agent, Alessandro Barel Di Sant Albano—the same agent who famously signed a 14-year-old Coco Gauff—sitting courtside at Shelton’s third-round match. Only his credential listed him as a player guest of Shelton, not Gauff.

The UF finance major was officially ready to take his studies online.

And soon, he’ll get a hands-on lesson in counting prize money too. Having gone pro, the NCAA champion is now guaranteed his cool $80,000 in US Open first-round prize money, not to mention anything else he accrues throughout the tournament. And as he descends on New York City with the representation of TEAM8, he’s also free to sign any sponsorship deals he wants, without having to adhere to the NCAA’s murky N.I.L. rules.

The timing couldn’t be more perfect, too. With the Big Three—Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic—increasingly absent from ATP draws, there is a sense that the doors have finally cracked open for the incoming generation, and they’re ready to break through. Shelton’s age-mates, like Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, are already multiple-time ATP title winners.

Of course, there’s still a ways to go until Shelton gets to their level. For one, he’s never played a tournament on red clay or on grass, and has also very little competitive experience away from North American hard courts.

And there will be a completely different caliber of opponent staring him down across the net as he takes the court at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center next week. But the easy-going Floridian looks poised to continue taking things in stride: big stadiums, big matches, Top 100 opponents and all.

“I think you've got to fake it till you make it, right?” Shelton said in Cincinnati, after his biggest win to date. “If I'm not feeling completely comfortable at the beginning, I'm going to do my best to show that I am until I find myself in a place where I am settled in…

“I'm finding it an easier time the more I'm in these situations, getting my heart rate down and feeling more calm on the court.”

Currently ranked No. 171, Ben Shelton will make his US Open main draw debut next week against qualifier Nuno Borges. The tournament begins on Monday, 29 August.