THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 9, 2025

Ben Shelton

Press Conference

J. SINNER/B. Shelton

7-6, 6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Tough day for you. Amazing performance, but not the result you were looking for. Just give us your initial thoughts.

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, it was a tough match. Jannik played well, a lot better than me today. Yeah, tough end to a good tournament.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Uncertainty with Jannik going into the match, how did you see his game? Were you unsure how it would be on his side of the net?

BEN SHELTON: No, I thought he would be fine. You can't go into a match thinking that the guy's not going to be at 100%. His ball was coming off pretty big today, so I didn't see any difference.

Q. There's only two guys who are beating you in Grand Slams these days. Do you see it that way? What do you think when you think about it and you go to the practice court? What are you focused on in terms of trying to close the gap?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, it's frustrating. There's a lot of things. It's two very different players and challenges. With Sinner, who I've played the most, his ball speed is really high. Never seen anything like it. You don't see anything like it when you're going through the draw. When you play him, it's almost like things are in 2x speed. I'm usually pretty good at adjusting to that speed.

Yeah, it's difficult when a guy's hitting the ball that big, that consistently off both wings, and serving the way he is.

I had the right idea for a lot of the match today. I served a lot better than I did in Australia. Smarter. Just went for it. But my first-serve percentage dropped in the moments that I needed it, and I probably just played too tentative. It was almost like a lot of the forehands that I was hitting that I needed to go for, that you need to go for against a guy like that, I was kind of spinning them, topping out, like I was playing on a slower hard court or a clay court.

For me, I'm still learning on the grass what works, what's most effective. I didn't have a great day today of doing things that were going to make him uncomfortable.

Q. Your first-serve percentage dropping in the moments when you needed it, is that just because these guys put so much pressure that in those moments you feel you have to make the perfect shot?

BEN SHELTON: I don't know. Yeah, probably a little bit of it. You feel consistent pressure playing a guy like him, who returns as well as him throughout the match.

Yeah, I think possibly trying to go a little bit too big on the first serve in those moments or hitting it too hard. When my tempo gets quick, I tend to miss those serves in the net. Being able to stay calm and keep my emotions the exact same and know that my normal service motion where I go after a first serve, it's going to show up at 140 on the clock.

It's not like when I go and hit my smooth service motion, it's going to come off 122. If I go from a flat serve with a smooth motion, it's going to come off 140, but chasing 147 sometimes in those moments, which is stupid.

Q. You mentioned after the previous match that it was your return game you're still working on. How did you feel about your overall return game today?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I mean, it's not underrated because the stats show his serving. It's the best on tour, one or two. It makes things difficult.

My return's improved a lot. I'm returning well, but it's tough against a guy like that. You get to 30, and every single time that I got to 30, I didn't see another second serve. I hardly saw two balls after the serve. It was just first serve to a spot, and the forehand was gone, or there was no forehand.

That made it difficult. I put myself in position a few times. When I did put myself in position, it wasn't really on my racquet. To be completely honest at 15-40, we played four points in a row, just too good. There's a Love-30 in the third set that maybe I had one look.

Yeah, overall my return game has improved a lot. Just those crucial moments he outplayed me today.

Q. Despite the loss, what would you say are the positives that you take from your performances so far this grass court season?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, no, feeling more comfortable on grass, for sure. The way I'm moving, the way I'm returning, hitting the ball from the ground is better. It's not where I want to be, but I have six weeks to do everything humanly possible to be ready and better at the US Open.

That's my favorite tournament of the year. Yeah, you know, going to go after it for this next however many weeks that I have.

Q. Are there things you can take from the success you had in Paris, success you had here, the best you've done at these two events? Are there things that can transfer to the hard courts?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, there's no doubt in my mind that I'm going back to my favorite surface now and the U.S. summer a better player compared to where I was in March. There's no doubt.

Athletic ability, movement, ball tolerance, shot selection, feel, finishing at the net, return game. It's like playing on these uncertain surfaces where there are bad bounces or the ball checks off a line. On clay you have a lot more bad bounces. You learn to adjust.

Yeah, I feel like my game has improved a lot, gotten a lot better. Fitness is huge. In the U.S. summer that's one of my main focuses before I start in DC. Yeah, I want to be at my best at the US Open.

Q. You're only 22 years old, and you've made quarterfinals of every Grand Slam. Does that fill you with confidence going forward in terms of you're in the early stages of your career, but achieved a lot?

BEN SHELTON: Well, I didn't make quarters at French. Only round of 16 there, but the other three.

Yeah, I know that I can play at the Grand Slams at this point. I know that I have the ability to be deep in the tournament when it's three-out-of-five sets. At this point it's just what I do when I get there.

I'm obviously playing against the best guys in the world where everyone's feeling the sharpest. Yeah, there's just things that I have to improve on.

Yes, I could sit there and be like, Wow, 22 years old and I've been able to do these things and achieve these things, but my mind is, I don't know, critical. I'm a critical thinker. I'm trying to solve problems.

I know that I'm not where I want to be. That's kind of what I'm focusing on. Obviously being closer and being in the later stages makes you even more hungry and makes you feel like you can do it and you can break through.

I'm definitely grateful for these opportunities and the ones that I've had in the later stages of these tournaments. But yeah, my mind is just kind of locked in on the work that I have to do.

Q. Emotionally, what is your degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with these results you posted this year at the slams?

BEN SHELTON: I'm definitely not satisfied. I'd be a little bit tone deaf to say I'm dissatisfied with what I was able to put together on the clay and the grass courts. I always say that I want to go one step deeper at the big tournaments than I did the year before, and I've done that at every slam this year. I've done something that I haven't done before... Australia, French and here.

I wouldn't say that I'm satisfied, but yeah, can I be or feel confident coming off the first three slams of the season going into the fourth and encouraged and excited about the opportunity at the US Open because of what I've put together so far this year? Yes. At the same time, it still stings.