Ben Shelton’s Light-out Grand Slam Tennis developed

Melbourne, Australia – Ben Shelton’s Australian Open equation is simple. Beat the best player in the world to get to the final and then defeated either the second best player in the world by having ranking or one of the greatest male players of all time.

He will play in the semi -finals in Melbourne on Friday evening in the semi -finals in Melbourne Jannik Sinner, No. 1 and defending champion. Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic deny the other semi -finals. But even if he doesn’t win any other match, Shelton, the world No. 21, has made one thing exceptionally clear in the past two weeks: it is one thing to beat him on a tour event, it is a completely different thing about to plunge him at a Grand Slam.

The American has now played 10 majors and reached the semi -finals twice and the quarter -finals. Shelton is 24-9 in Grand Slam Main-Draw games and 18-4 on the hard areas of New York and Melbourne.

Shelton has been talking to tennis mathematics for a few weeks and tells everyone who wants to listen to listen to more in the best-of-five format than in any other. Grand Slam calculations form the basis for Shelton’s success at the largest tournaments in tennis, in which he has a winning rate of 72 percent. It is 58 percent for all ATP tour competitions, including the majors.

“For me it is very special to play at these big tournaments and play my best tennis at the big tournaments,” he said on Wednesday evening, after beating Lorenzo Songo from Italy, 6-4, 7-5, 4 -6, 7-7-6 (4) in three and a half hours.

In order to look at Shelton’s game on the surface, his version of Big Time Tennis is all Vibes and thunder: the massive surcharge, the cranked forehand and the backhand, which get an additional effort when he gets his shoulders moving. It is a nature -related approach for the tennis court that moves its opponent and all into a boiler of the mood.

Maybe it was the way it was in his breakout runs, especially at the US Open 2023 when he sprinted into the semi-finals with his celebration of the phone and suggested the side lines. Not so much now. The massive surcharge becomes something more difficult and more precise. The basic strokes deserve the right to end points instead of exploding them. He integrates more spin into his forehand and works hard to vary his second leg.

Shelton produced electrifying services at the 2023 US Open. (Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)

“You get a few more balls back,” said his father and coach Bryan Shelton with his son through a tunnel under Melbourne Park. “You make a few more intelligent decisions. He does things that he didn’t do a year ago. “

Everything goes back to mathematics. However, large margins have big games, especially for Shelton in recent years. A few loose dots that are lost to Rocket forehand that only miss or return here and there through an exaggeration can get half of the finish line in a best-of-red match.

A few more, and the match could be over. In a best-of-five sets match, especially in view of the time how much time he spends in the weight room and in the running track, especially now that he has repeatedly achieved a certain level of success of the Grand Slam.

“I have the feeling that I belong,” he said when he went through the corridor late Wednesday evening. “I have the feeling that I earn it.”

So also his father.

“You have children?” He asked for a while before Shelton spoke. “They are small things that you pay tiny dividends here and there. Hopefully over time. “

He didn’t really talk about tennis. And then he was.

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Ben Shelton, servant Savant, would like to talk about the return

Shelton knew that this path had to go – because of the math.

When he rolled to these Australian open quarter -finals and the US Open semi -final in 2023, he had the feeling that the fantastic tennis through which he lived could disappear at any moment. At that time, his serve, his biggest weapon, had to be perfect, together with almost everything else. If he had a bad portal or did not nail lines with his basic strokes, he would probably not win.

It was even more important that he had not yet found out how he had not only won Mary’s hail without 100 percent, but without 100 percent of his energy, physically and mentally.

Last year and especially in the past few months, he and his father have concentrated to summarize a safety net, since he and every other player will be far from finding a perfect version of himself on the tennis court.

His biggest task was to find out how to deal with the servants of his opponents in more points. He spoke about the past in the corridor late Wednesday. He could begin a match that returns well by stood deep, but when an opponent made an adaptation and heard deeply, he had to turn.

“I was not good at making the adjustments or changing my position, looking for the boys differently, and I have the feeling that I can do it now,” he said.

“The best returnees in the world, they can do so many different things, and sometimes it hits the ball and searches in the baseline, and sometimes it is a deeper, floating chip. Sometimes it’s a chip at the feet. This is a lot of what I worked on. “

Shelton’s second Grand -Slam -semi -final is more based on basics than on drums. (Andy Cheung / Getty Images)

Against Sonongo, Shelton absolutely wanted to take a two-set lead after being in a tie-break in the fourth set. Shelton had messed up early with a number of grinding, spinning career, which he had practiced in Florida all December. Then Songo stormed. His winner grew again and again, from six in the first set and 14 in the second to 17 in the third and then 26 in the fourth. Shelton’s legs were okay, but his mind was fried to watch all of these balls past him out of reach.

With 4-4, after a few tight flames from Selton and in the Net network of Songo, the Italian shot a kick in the middle of Shelton’s in the forehand. He didn’t try to kill it: he met a low -chip short and pulled Songo online, where he didn’t really want to be at that moment. Songo praised an approach in Shelton’s backhand and thundered him back. The salt sailed for a long time. Shelton concluded it from there to open his date with the world No. 1 and the defending champion.

He is a realist. Sinner has been in a class in a class in the last five months of Carlos Alcaraz and has occasionally joined and exceeded by Carlos Alcaraz. Shelton knows that his chances are what they are. But the match remains a great opportunity to measure itself and its progress against the best on the largest stage.

Shelton once hit the sinner in Shanghai in October 2023 when the Italian rounded up into the form that brought him first place in the ranking. Since then he has not won a sentence against sinners in four attempts.

He will try to believe that this does not matter, just as he did before he was in Lorenzo Musetti in the third round. Musetti had won both earlier games. People asked him how that would work.

“I don’t care who is on the other side of the square,” he said, after having hit Musetti, who had never played him in a Grand Slam.

“When I’m healthy and feel good, I always have the feeling that I can walk the distance, five sets. That is half the battle and trusts your ability to make it to the end. “

What is the other half? Sinner and then maybe Djokovic. It is the last weekend of a Grand Slam and there are only four players left. It’s just math.

(Top photo: Mark Avellino / Anadolu via Getty Images)