Andy Roddick says the United States has five men capable of reaching 2024 Finals
Andy Roddick believes that 21-year-old Ben Shelton is the American player most likely to qualify for ATP Finals next year.
Roddick feels that US tennis is producing great talents and expects Shelton to stand out among the top performers next season.
After Shelton’s breakout year, the 2003 US Open winner showered him in admiration but admitted that the next term will present a fresh set of challenges.
The United States has several players threatening the top ten right now, with Taylor Fritz eager to bounce back as in Frances Tiafoe while the likes of Shelton, Tommy Paul and Sebastian Korda have shown themselves more than capable on the ATP Tour.
The United States missed out on having a male player in the season-finale while Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff had tremendous seasons on the WTA Tour and both reached the last four in Cancun.
Roddick believes that Shelton could be the player who improves the most in 2024 which could propel him into the midst of the game’s elite.
“Personally, if I had to choose one, I think I would go with Ben Shelton,” Andy Roddick said via Tennis Channel.
“The guy’s currently 17 in the world, has made runs at Slams already and all the while he is still figuring out, how to play, tennis like, he left the country this year, for the first time in his life, it’s only gonna go up.”
“He’s gonna break serve a little bit more, even figure out how to hold serve a little bit more, how to pitch a little bit of a better ball game,” he added.
While Roddick was firm in backing Shelton he would add that the US now has many players who can threaten the best in the sport.
“I love that post US Open, he was consistent back-to-back weeks for the first time found that level of consistency,” Roddick continued. “It wasn’t just a shot, the shot in the arm in Australia, and then kind of take a little bit of time off and not went back to back matches semi-final.”
“He would continue that in Tokyo,” he added.
“So I guess Ben Shelton, but listen, they told us to pick one. I wish I could pick them all.
“If you look at Sebastian Korda, Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz – We have five contenders for a spot of the ATP Tour finals next year.”
“I don’t know when the last time we could actually say that was an actually mean it, right, where it’s like, it would be shocking as anyone on this list maybe next year, or so I choose to be positive with this team.”
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