ROLAND GARROS

May 30, 2025

Ben Shelton

Press Conference

B. SHELTON/M. Gigante

6-3, 6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Congrats, Ben. Can you walk us through today's match? What do you think was the key?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, it was a fun one for me. My first time playing on Simonne Mathieu, and a tricky matchup, you know. Whenever you play a lefty, it's not easy.

Usually I'm on the lefty side of that, but he's a difficult player to play who has been playing with a lot of confidence. Beat Stef here last round, who has obviously been in the finals.

Yeah, it was one of those matches where a lot of things clicked for me. I thought I returned really well. I thought I backed up my service games well, even though I didn't serve great.

Yeah, happy with the way that I came through the tough match in three sets.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Can you talk about that shot in the second set? Is that one of the most remarkable shots you have played on your stomach one-handed?

BEN SHELTON: If I would have dove for it, I would have said yeah. But it was because of my lack of good clay court movement I fell on my face, and so that's why I hit the ball from the ground.

No, I wouldn't say the most remarkable because of that. But yeah, to win that point, pretty impressive, I think (smiling).

Yeah, I wish I could say I dove for that, but I had already fell on my face before the ball was arriving.

Q. Your dad has an earpiece for the tournaments. He can speak with TNT during the game. Is not a problem for you he can speak about your game during the game?

BEN SHELTON: No, I could care less. I think it's good for the sport to get some insight on the coaches. I think that's what fans want to see. I think it's a great part of tennis that we hadn't had much of in the past, but something that my dad is always willing and ready to do whenever he's been asked. Whether Shanghai 2023, I think, or here, he's the first to help with anything that could help grow our sport or be good for the media, as long as it's not a distraction.

For me, I don't even notice it during the match, other than seeing the earpiece. Yeah, I think it's been pretty cool, and hopefully people have enjoyed it.

Q. This isn't what I was going to ask, but just to quickly follow up, would you ever go and try to see the clips to find out what the heck he might have said while you were playing?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, kind of. If it comes up in my Instagram at some point, I'm sure I will watch it. I don't know if I'll go seek it out, but I'll definitely probably see it at some point.

I'm guessing it's probably along the lines of everything that he's told me every day of my life, you know, (smiling).

Q. I wanted to go back to what you said at the very beginning about it's always tricky playing a lefty. Why, for you, is that the case?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, the spin off the ball is weird. I returned really well today. But returning a lefty's serve as a lefty is tough. When you have a guy who can go both ways with the serve and hit the kicker up to the backhand, that's the only time in the world where I wish that I was a righty, because, you know, you have a fat kicker and you hit it to the righty's backhand and you can use that every single match.

Over, what, 90% of the players on tour are righty, and you just go to that play over and over again if you have a great kicker.

For me, I hit the kicker out wide and I hit it perfectly, it works. And I don't hit it perfectly, and Sinner or Foe or Carlos or anybody is kind of, you know, destroying a forehand winner on that.

But yeah, there is a lot of small intricacies of the game that make it more difficult to play when you're a lefty. Actually, my last couple of days warming up and practicing with lefties, the way that these guys are hitting the spinny forehand with side spin, I can't make a volley. In practice I was pretty horrendous. I was happy with how I volleyed today because last couple of days in practice was a shocker.

Q. When you kind of rolled through those first two sets, and then when things got tight in the third set, were you, like, what did you have to call on? What did you feel like you had to do in order to stay out in front? Because it wasn't straightforward, it didn't look like.

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, it got tough. I thought he started playing his return games a lot smarter. He started serving smarter, mixing up speeds, because I was pretty dialed in on lacing returns today. He started changing it from 158 to 202, was kind of his range of speeds on the first serve, so that threw me off. I started shanking some, and he started hitting his backhand line really well. So those were all things that kind of started giving me problems late in the match.

I just had to be tough, you know, dig out some tough points, play, you know, my best tennis down Love-30 or 15-30, 15-40. Just kind of figured out, even the last game breaking, he was up 40-Love.

I think just kind of staying there, knowing, yeah, I'm up two sets to love, I don't want him to get the momentum going, but it's not the end of the world, and kind of giving myself the opportunity to still play freely.

Q. There is going to be three or four American men in the fourth round here, depending on what happens with Quinn tomorrow. Probably a decade this year where you didn't have three or four men, American men, in the fourth round here. Wondering what you think of this as a milestone. Wondering if you think also the American men's mindset on this surface has changed. Years ago there was a defeatist attitude and now there is more belief and more winning maybe.

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, it's interesting. I think that all the Americans are really excited. We all always know that this is a tournament that historically we don't do well in, a surface we historically struggle on. It would mean a lot, you know, how much respect you would gain for doing well here.

I was talking to Frances about this a couple days ago, but with TNT coming on, we feel like a huge American presence in this tournament now. We feel like people back home, we're getting more messages, more people see it and more people care.

I'm not exactly sure what the feedback here in Europe has been, because most of my friends are back home. But they have loved it. I think that I have also seen some of the guys getting opportunities to play on big courts. You know Foe, when he's on a big court, he lights it up.

I think that for all of us, this has just been a tournament where we're figuring things out, we're excited about the opportunity. You know, Tommy arguably, his best surface is clay. Maybe that's a stretch, but his results in the Masters 1000s, especially on clay, he's a dog and always a contender. The other guys, as well, aren't afraid to get a little dirty.

Q. To follow up on this topic, I wanted to know, did you make a specific job this year on clay to make some improvement? Can you talk about your relationship with the clay?

BEN SHELTON: Sorry, what was the first part?

Q. Did you make a specific job this year to improve your game and to improve your movement on clay? And what is your relationship with the clay?

BEN SHELTON: From what you saw today, I fell. I guess not a big jump with the movement.

No, I think for me it's just figuring out how I can still play my game and adapt slightly to being on the clay and moving on the clay, but still playing an aggressive style of tennis where I'm getting forward numerous times to the net, hitting volleys and overheads, mixing the serve and volley, still going after my flat serves, you know, trying to be dynamic with my forehand, mixing in my slice.

I think I'm doing a better and better job of not just thinking I have to be 20 feet behind the baseline and play high and heavy, like the traditional clay court game style, but I can still play my game style and be effective on clay.

Q. Next match likely to be Alcaraz at this point. What are your thoughts on what it will be like to play him here?

BEN SHELTON: Is he up two sets?

Q. He's up a set and a break. He's rolling.

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, first off, I'd be excited, whoever wins that match. I'm looking forward to it. Being in the second round [sic] of a slam, it's nothing that you take lightly. Don't want to disrespect anyone obviously when the match is still going on.

But if it does happen to be Alcaraz, playing the defending champion, round of 16, I'm guessing center court, that's a pretty cool opportunity, pretty cool experience, that not a lot of people get or see in their lifetime.

For me, I'm definitely going to enjoy it and go out there and see what I can do, because I'm starting to gain some speed, gain a little bit of traction on this surface, and starting to see some of my best tennis. So I like to think of myself as dangerous whenever I get to that place. Yeah, really looking forward to it.

But either way, either guy winning, I'm looking forward to the next round.

Q. Another question on three, maybe four guys from the USA being in the round of 16. First time three have done it since '95, actually. Is it another sign to you that American men are coming and closing the gap on the rest of the world?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I think 100%. You know, the guys that are pushing through, it's not like the group's getting smaller; it's getting bigger.

You know, you have the guys who have been staples at the top, Fritz, Tommy, and Foe. You know, I'm in that mix now. But you have so many other guys who maybe aren't mentioned as much who have huge upsides, like Sebi Korda, like Alex Michelsen who is coming through. Like Learner Tien. Nishesh Basavareddy. Ethan Quinn now going to be top 100 after this tournament.

Our numbers are just getting bigger and bigger. I think when you have guys breaking through like that all the time, it's tough not for there to be a few of them at the top.

It's really encouraging for me. I think we're one of the countries who is doing it right right now and really breaking through. You know, the Italians definitely have us beat, and I don't know what other countries. But I think that we're cementing ourselves up there in the tennis world, for sure.