Moment Ben Shelton injured his shoulder revealed as US Open dream ends in tears
Ben Shelton could not hold back the tears after his US Open dream was crushed in agonising fashion, as he was forced to retire from a match for the first time in his career against Adrian Mannarino.
Shelton appeared to be on course for victory when he took the third set of his match against Mannarino, with the set point bringing the New York fans to their feet as Shelton pulled off a miracle shot as he dived across the hard court.
That proved to be a decisive moment in the match and not for the reason Shelton would have been hoping for as it seems that he damaged his shoulder as he hit the court.
He raised his arm in celebration as the excitement of the moment gripped him, but it didn’t take long for the impact of that winning point to hit him.
After grasping his shoulder in agony, he was picked up on courtside microphones telling his father Bryan that he was suffering ‘more pain than he has ever felt on a tennis court’.
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After losing the fourth set to the always tricky Mannarino, Shelton broke down in tears on his chair and had to accept his US Open dream was over for another year.
“When he started to have pain, he was leading in the match,” Mannarino said in his on-court interview.
“Honestly, he probably would’ve won that match. That’s unfortunate for him, and lucky for me. I don’t really know what to say right now. I’m happy to be through but I wish him the best, of course.”
Mannarino will now be playing in the fourth round of the US Open for the first time in his career at the age of 37, with this latest success confirmed when he was in the toilet, with Shelton needing to wait on court to concede the match to his opponent.
“I’m 37 years old and it’s the first time I’m winning a match from the toilet,” joked Mannarino. “There’s always new things coming up and I’m just enjoying my time on the court. I hope I can extend it for a little while.
“I was having good fun on the court, there were some really long rallies.
“I was losing some, winning some, but I think it was a really cool match to play. Ben is playing really well, he kicked my ass at the beginning of the summer, but it was a great match. I was enjoying it, even if I was losing, it was a pretty cool match.”
The defeat will be especially painful for Shelton as a deep run at the US Open would have opened the door for him to overtake Taylor Fritz and become America’s No 1 player.
Now the question will be how long he will be out for, with a long absence threatening his hopes of making a first appearance in the lucrative end-of-season ATP Finals.
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