Mumbai: “I think I’m an entertainer at heart,” he had said ahead of the US Open last year.
His tennis certainly is entertaining. He has that big, monstrous serve that often goes beyond 220 kmph. He has big strokes off both forehand and backhand and is an excellent mover despite his 6 feet 4 inches frame. These are all wonderful tools that give him many moments to celebrate on court.
The tools came together well, again, on Saturday at the Australian Open. Playing against 30th seed Valentin Vacherot of Monaco in the third round, Shelton rarely put a foot wrong as he took two hours and 17 minutes at the Margaret Court Arena to pick up a 6-4, 6-4, 7-6(5) win.
There were a few fist pumps and shouts in that moment of triumph. And then he had his game face on once again. “I’ve still got a lot to prove here,” he said in the on-court interview.
At 23, world No.7 Shelton is the highest ranked American men’s singles player. “I think I’m doing a lot of great things on the court,” he later said to the press. “I take a lot of confidence out of the performance today, and a few things that I need to work on and want to improve on.”
He was in fine form against Vacherot, a player who rose through the qualifying round to win the Shanghai Masters last September.
The big serve, which remained unbroken, brought Shelton 15 aces with one double fault. He raked up a remarkable 81% (50 off 62) first serve points won while hitting 48 winners to 27 unforced errors. All this, just days after he beat the tricky Frenchman Ugo Humbert in straight-sets in the first round, followed by another straight-forward win over Australia’s Dane Sweeney.
Yet Shelton asserted that this is not the best he has been at a Grand Slam.
“The best that I’ve played at a Slam was up until I got injured at the US Open last summer (he retired midway through his third-round match),” he said. “I think that this is probably second. But to be in the form that I’m in as early as it is in the year is really encouraging. I think I’m serving much better now. The way that I’m able to flatten out the forehand and change speeds on the backhand with the slice — top spin and flat — I’ve seen improvements.”
The win on Saturday takes him to the Round of 16 at the Australian Open for the third time in four visits — he lost in the third round in 2024. His overall Grand Slam record, too, is rather impressive. He reached the semi-final at the 2023 US Open and the Australian Open last year. He was the quarter-finalist in his Melbourne debut in 2023 and at Wimbledon last year.
“I think I play my best tennis at these big tournaments. The format and the atmosphere factor into that,” Shelton explained. “For me, playing in five sets, you have so much time. You can be free at times, you can swing free… it just feels like you have an enormous amount of time to figure things out on the court. There’s no rush. I like that feeling.”
The American now has a tough task ahead in 12th seed Casper Ruud. The former world No.2 Norwegian is a three-time Grand Slam finalist and has been on a decent run himself, overcoming the challenge of 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic in the third round.
Shelton, a proven big-match player, is “looking forward to the matchup.”
