Shelton turns attention to grass following loss

Ben Shelton’s clay-court swing came to an end with a disappointing 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 loss to Felix Auger-Aliassime in the Roland-Garros third round on Saturday afternoon.

Still, it was a mostly encouraging spring on dirt for the 21-year-old, who started it in style with a title in Houston. Although Shelton wasn’t as productive in Europe, he at least managed to win a match in both Madrid and Rome before bouncing back from an immediate loss in Geneva by reaching the third round in Paris for the first time.

Compared to his 2023 exploits on the slow stuff, it was a smashing success for Shelton. Last season the American won a grand total of two matches in seven ATP-level tournaments on clay.

“Hot start,” he reflected. “Won a title my first week and didn’t exactly perform the way I wanted to the rest of the season. But it’s part of tennis…. I’ll go back to the drawing board and go back to work. I’m excited for the clay. I don’t look at the clay as a surface that I’ll struggle on; I look at clay as a surface that suits my game.

“I think I’ll just have to continue to improve. I’m not a final product right now. I’m not where I want to be — not even close. There’s a lot of things to work on and I’ve gotta be diligent with the way that I try to improve them.

“One of the differences on clay when you’re playing on a big court, sometimes holding serve is a bit more difficult. Guys can stand so far back and take away the advantage that you have hitting a big serve or hitting with a lot of pace. That can cause you to press sometimes. That is one of things I’m learning to deal with…. Sometimes I go bounce the ball, I look up and I can barely see the guy he’s so far away. If I had a little bit of (Corentin) Moutet in me (I would hit underarm serves).

“There are some things to figure out, but challenges make this game fun.”

I think [GRASS] is a surface I can do a lot of damage on.

Ben Shelton

Of course, following his Roland-Garros ouster he won’t have to think about clay-court improvements until April of 2025.

Now it’s time for Shelton to turn his attention to grass, which is exactly what he is doing. The world No 15 is signed up for Stuttgart the week after Roland-Garros ends — an event he still plans on playing despite being hampered by a shoulder issue during his loss to Auger-Aliassime. Then it will be on to Queen’s Club and Wimbledon for Shelton.

Not unlike clay, the learning curve on a new surface was a steep one for Shelton in 2023 — when he won only two matches in three grass-court appearances.

“There’s still a long ways to go (on grass),” he commented. “I’m really looking forward to it and, yeah, I think it is a surface I can do a lot of damage on. Hopefully I can go one step further than I went last year. One thing I was happy about with the clay season is pretty much every tournament I played I did a little but better than I did last year. Little improvements are huge and I’ll strive for the same on grass.

“I have 10 days now until my next [tournament] in Stuttgart…. It’s a different surface; very different conditions. On clay the clay gets caked on the ball. The balls get heavier; they get bigger — a lot of longer points and a lot of longer service games, too. Returners are winning more points. It’s a little bit different on a grass court.”