Ben Shelton makes ‘surreal’ admission after ATP Rankings feat as he passes Novak Djokovic with Canada title
Ben Shelton has won his maiden ATP Masters 1000 trophy with a three-set win over Karen Khachanov in the Canadian Open final and with it also came a new career-high in the ATP Rankings.
Before the Toronto event, Shelton’s previous best performances at Masters level were three quarter-final appearances, but he not only reached his first semi-final, but went on to reach his first final and has now lifted his first title as well.
The 22-year-old edged 2018 Paris Masters winner Khachanov 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) to become the sixth American to win a Masters 1000 title before the age of 23 as he followed in the footsteps of Andre Agassi, Michael Chang, Jim Courier, Pete Sampras and Andy Roddick.
Shelton, who defeated eighth seed Alex de Minaru and fourth seed Taylor Fritz to reach the final, has now won three ATP Tour singles titles following his ATP 500 Japan Open trophy in 2023 and the ATP 250 US Men’s Clay Court Championships title the following year.
“It’s a surreal feeling,” the American said. “It’s been a long week, not an easy path to the final. My best tennis came out when it mattered most. I was clutch, I persevered, I was resilient. All the qualities I like to see in myself.”
ATP Rankings Boost
With the win, Shelton will move ahead of the great Novak Djokovic in the rankings as he will climb one spot to No 6 in the rankings – a new best. He started the year at No 21 at made his top-10 breakthrough in June with his next big goal the top five.
Shelton has 200 points to defend at the next event, the Cincinnati Open, after reaching the quarter-final last year, but if he goes deeper this year then he could break into the top five.
In terms of titles, with ATP 250, ATP 500 and ATP 1000 trophies in the bag, he will no doubt to go one step higher and win a Grand Slam.
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Asked about the next logical step, Shelton replied: “For me, being as consistent as I was this week. I think that the more opportunities that you have, the more times you put yourself in the position to be playing against the best players in the world, you’re only going to get better.
“So, for me it’s being in the later stages of the tournament and playing against guys who are playing their best tennis to see where I match up, and see where my weaknesses are and where I can get better.
He added: “I think it’s an important piece of the game that maybe I overlooked a little bit in the past, or didn’t think was as important, because I was like, I’m going to impose my game on whoever I was playing, but it’s a really important part of the game.
“I think that my tennis IQ and my tennis mind is something that is getting better, and something that needs to continue to get better.”
