Don’t celebrate until you separate: The Nadal call behind Shelton’s final
After Ben Shelton won Montreal and went out in the first round at Cincinnati a week later, his father called Rafael Nadal to ask how a player backs up a big win. The answer became five words in the Shelton camp, and 48 hours after beating Carlos Alcaraz at three in the morning, his son played the most methodical match of his life.
Rafael Nadal, 2026 | © Alterpsorts / PsNewz
Ben Shelton beat Carlos Alcaraz at three in the morning on Wednesday and had to play a Grand Slam semifinal two days later. He succeded, in what you can call a perfect episode in the art of bouncing, which wasn’t Ben’s best skill til today.
His father and coach had already worked out what that costs, because it had gone wrong once this summer, and because he picked up the phone to Rafael Nadal about it.
Shelton won the Masters 1000 in Montreal in August and lost his opening match in Cincinnati the following week, to Jaime Faria. Bryan Shelton says they saw it coming and could not stop it.
“We said, this is going to be the toughest day you’re going to have, playing against Faria in the first round in Cincinnati after winning a title,” he said. “Very few people come from that and have another good tournament the next week, and he didn’t. He lost first round.”
So he called someone who had solved it. “I remember talking to Rafa a couple of days after that match. I called him up, and I was talking to him. Rafa was, like, you know, you got to be able to get through that first one and have the day off and then be able to get your best tennis again the next week.”
The lesson was banked and spent on Friday, when Shelton beat Frances Tiafoe 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 to reach the first Grand Slam final of his career.
A lot of people want to rest after they’ve had something good and want to celebrate it.
“It was a lesson for Ben that you’ve got to be able to bounce back when good things happen just as you have to bounce back when adversity happens,” his father said. “So we talked about him beating Carlos and how important it’s really going to be for him to understand that this one is going to be even tougher tonight, to bounce back after that, because a lot of people want to rest after they’ve had something good and want to celebrate it.”
Then the rule, in five words. “What we say is don’t celebrate until you separate, so you’ve got to win the next match. You’ve got to consolidate it. Then somewhere hopefully next week we can celebrate a little bit.”
The player’s account matches the coach’s
Shelton : “Once I get into my routines…”
Shelton described the semifinal in a register he had not used after the quarterfinal, and the difference is the whole point.
“I was honestly shocked with how calm I was out there today,” he said. “The last match that I won, definitely had this feeling of ecstasy, it felt like, on top of the world. This match I felt a lot more methodical with how I went about it, how focused I was, finishing the job the way I did.”
He credited the gap in the schedule as much as the mindset. “Having two days was huge. For me it’s easier in tournament. Winning a title, completing the week or two weeks, whatever it is, is different than traveling to a new place and starting over. That’s a lot tougher for me. Once I get on a roll in a tournament and I get into my routines, it’s a little bit easier.”
And he did not pretend the trap is unique to him. “I know that that happens a lot in our sport. You have a massive win, and then you end up going down and not playing as well in the next match. It’s definitely happened to me before. I feel that it’s happened to everybody.”
The consolidation is not finished. Shelton plays Alexander Zverev in Sunday’s final, having lost all five of their previous meetings, and is trying to become the first American man to win a major since Andy Roddick in 2003.
