Ben Shelton, 30 years on, following in his father's footsteps

© AFP

Guillaume Nonque

le 07/07/2024 à 13h10

2 min to read

Bergstrom Shelton Sinner Stich Wimbledon

Ben Shelton takes on Jannik Sinner this Sunday afternoon in his first round of 16 at Wimbledon. It's yet another milestone in the young American's progress, and one with a very special flavour.

In doing so, he is following in the footsteps of his father, also his lifelong coach, who reached this stage of the competition at the 1994 edition of the tournament, 30 years ago.

Bryan Shelton, 28 and ranked 120th in the world at the time, came through the qualifying rounds and achieved his greatest feat in the first round by beating Germany's Michael Stich, then world no. 2 and winner of the 1991 edition, in the first round (6-3, 6-3, 6-4).

He then went on to win his next two rounds in 5 sets, reaching the last 16 where he eventually lost to Sweden's Christian Bergstrom (3-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 10-8).

Ben Shelton will also have to perform a feat on Sunday. If he wants to do better than his father, he'll have to topple the world number 1 on Court 1.

Ben Shelton: "I think it's much more impressive that he (his father) reached the last 16 back in the day, beating the world number two when he was only 50th in the world or something (120th actually).

It's really cool for us to be able to share this moment together. I don't know if we thought we'd be in this situation at this point in our lives, but we're really grateful for everything that's happened so far.

We work very well together on the court. I think with the new coaching rule, the information he's able to give me during the match, he can help me stay in the right frame of mind. I enjoy the exchanges we have during the matches."