US Open: Shelton moves into quarter-finals, knocks out 14th seed Paul
Ben Shelton edged out Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 on Sunday evening and will play the winner of the match between Australian wildcard Rinky Hijikata and American Frances Tiafoe, the No 10 seed, in the next round
Ben Shelton at the 2023 Laver Cup (Javier Garcia/Shutterstock/SIPA)
Ben Shelton edged out No 14 seed Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to advance to the quarter-finals of the US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on Sunday evening.
Shelton – who featured in UTS Los Angeles – is through to his second Slam quarter-final of the season, and is the youngest American man to do this in New York since Andy Roddick in 2002, at the age of 20.
After the match, Shelton shared his thoughts on how he managed to defeat his compatriot, who is 33 spots above him in the ATP rankings:
“Yeah, I think the key for me was making sure that I played within myself. I didn’t try to play too well or be too perfect or think that I had to be too good or hit the ball too hard to try to win that match.
“I think that the more that I slowed things down, you know, changed up speeds and just kind of stayed calm and confident in my game style and didn’t try to extend myself outside of what I have, I think that was the biggest part for me to get over the line.”
Shelton, ranked No 47, will face the winner of the match between Australian wildcard Rinky Hijikata and American Frances Tiafoe, the No 10 seed, next.
Ben Shelton won against Argentinian Pedro Cachin (1-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4), Austrian Dominic Thiem (7-6 (1), 1-0 ret.) and Russian Aslan Karatsev (6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 6-0) ahead of his victory.
Earlier in the tournament, Paul, ranked No 14, defeated Italian qualifier Stefano Travaglia (6-2, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1), Russian Roman Safiullin (3-6, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3) and Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, the No 21 seed (6-1, 6-0, 3-6, 6-3).
New York (Grand Slam), other last 16 results (USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, hard, USD 44.700.000, most recent results first):
- Alexander Zverev vs. Jannik Sinner
- Daniil Medvedev vs. Alex De Minaur
- Carlos Alcaraz vs. Matteo Arnaldi
- Jack Draper vs. Andrey Rublev
- Borna Gojo vs. Novak Djokovic
- Dominic Stricker vs. Taylor Fritz
- Rinky Hijikata vs. Frances Tiafoe
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