Ben Shelton’s tennis gifts made him a contender. To become a champion, he has more to unwrap

NEW YORK — Ben Shelton remembers the exact phrase that sprang into his mind near the end of his first-round match at Wimbledon this year, an irksome loss to Otto Virtanen of Finland.

When he led 8-5 in the fifth-set tiebreak, he looked up at the scoreboard and thought, “What is this bull———t?”

Shelton had already let a two-sets-to-one lead slip away. If he and Virtanen had been playing a normal, seven-point tiebreak, rather than one of the 10-point versions that decide fifth sets, he would have already won.

The American felt he should have already won. Virtanen was ranked No. 140 in the world, and Shelton, the No. 4 seed at the All England Club, hadn’t lost a first-round match at a Grand Slam in three years.

But after his moment of awe at his fate that day, Shelton won just one more point. Virtanen took the tiebreak 11-9.

“I was a little bit shocked because, to be honest. When I look back at the match, I didn’t feel that there were many other first-round matches at Slams in the last two years where I’ve played much better,” Shelton said in an interview this summer.

It didn’t take long for the shock to fade. When it did, patterns began to emerge as Shelton analyzed the match. Mental lapses. Sub-par returning. Poor point construction on break points in his favor. Those are three large reasons why Shelton, 23, has had a mixed bag of a year. He has captured four titles, the most he has ever won in a single season, but he has also endured several early-round exits at the big-time tournaments, including two of the first three Grand Slams.

Shelton’s father, Bryan, is a former ATP Tour player. He is also his son’s coach, and thanks to that influence, Shelton has always looked at his career through a long lens. The loss to Virtanen was a stark reminder that the innate gifts which have propelled him to stardom will likely not be enough to make him a champion.

“I think I’m still a raw talent,” Shelton said. “I don’t feel I’m really as refined as any of the guys in the top 10, and I feel like I have a lot of tools that are coming along, but not quite there yet.”

The question now is what Shelton does with this self-awareness.

A title contender at the ongoing U.S. Open, Shelton displayed many of his familiar vulnerabilities in a 7-6(3), 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4 third-round win over fellow lefty Denis Shapovalov, in a match that started Friday and ended just after 2 a.m. Saturday on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The first two sets were uneven on both sides of the net. Shelton and Shapovalov took turns flubbing leads and break points.

Their start was delayed by Serena and Venus Williams’ doubles match, which went three hours — extraordinarily long for doubles. When Shelton and Shapovalov took the court, they were unprepared. Mental errors were plentiful, and it wasn’t until the third set that Shelton started playing slightly more how he wants in terms of aggression and his ability to dictate.

It was a rickety win, but a win all the same. It also sent Shelton into the last 16 at the U.S. Open for the first time since 2023, when he made the semifinals. He will now face a resurgent Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 28-year-old Greek who is having his best run at a Grand Slam in over two years.

And while Shelton’s win against Shapovalov did not represent growth, it was a feat of survival.

That Wimbledon loss to Virtanen had followed a second-round, straight-sets loss to Raphaël Collignon at the French Open.

Improving on that here in New York counts for something, especially considering Shelton’s opponents in the first two rounds. Tallon Griekspoor and Hubert Hurkacz are far from household names, but are veterans who know how to make opponents’ lives difficult.

“I think this is a great way to start the tournament in terms of variety. I’ve dealt with a lefty, I’ve dealt with a big hitter, I’ve dealt with a feel guy, I’ve dealt with a massive server, I’ve dealt with a spot server, serve-and-volleyer,” Shelton said early Saturday morning, when asked if he’d have preferred an easier path to the fourth round.

“I feel well prepared for what’s ahead.”

Shelton hasn’t had too many deep runs at big tournaments this year.

Between his quarterfinal appearance at the Australian Open in January and the disappointment at Wimbledon in June, he won two 500-level ATP titles and a 250-level tournament in Stuttgart, but mostly crashed out on tennis’s grandest stages. The furthest he made it at four ATP Masters 1000 events during that stretch was the third round of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Calif.

Retreating home to Florida from London earlier than expected, the Virtanen defeat motivated him to dive into training. He soon realized that match was actually a map. He hadn’t quite been able to pinpoint why he was losing earlier than expected at Grand Slams and ATP Masters 1000 events, which are played at the level just below the four majors, but having success at smaller tournaments.

Wimbledon helped clarify that part of the problem was mental — he’d never had an issue performing well in big competitions, and he’d started taking early-rounds opponents for granted.

Then there was the return, a vulnerability in his game of which Shelton has long been aware. Wimbledon was another strong signal that players he shouldn’t be losing to on paper were too easily pushing him around in half of the games of each set.

His ability to construct points when he was in a position to break needed attention, too.

“It’s weird, I think that match did help me a lot. I’m in a way better mental space now with my identity because of that loss,” Shelton said. “When I’m confident and feeling myself, I do a better job of taking it to guys. Even when guys are trying to play aggressively, or take my time away, or get on top of me early, I feel like my stuff can void that out.”

Ahead of the U.S. Open, Shelton was the dominant player in a field full of up-and-comers at the ATP Masters 1000 Canadian Open in Montreal earlier in August. He didn’t drop a set on the way to successfully defending his title there, able to control his matches from end to end.

The conditions in Canada were ideal: slow hard courts, where the bread-and-butter elements of Shelton’s big-serve-plus-big-forehand game could shine and he had enough time to take meaty cuts at his opponents’ serves. He was also the most experienced quarterfinalist of a historically young field.

He then went out of the Cincinnati Open early, and the challenge is tougher at the U.S. Open: should he beat Tsitsipas, either his countryman Tommy Paul or defending champion Carlos Alcaraz will await in the quarterfinals.

Against Paul, he probably likes his chances. But if he wants to start beating opponents such as Alcaraz — even if the Spaniard is just coming back from a long absence due to a wrist injury — Shelton knows he can no longer ride his raw talent and hard work.

That first-round loss at Wimbledon may have been a turning point for his 2026 season. Shelton hopes it’s a turning point for his career, too.