THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 4, 2025

Ben Shelton

Press Conference

B. SHELTON/R. Hijikata

6-2, 7-5, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I'm sure you're so very glad to be here right now. Last night you looked hugely frustrated at being stopped from finishing your match. What it is like to have to come back today? Have you ever been in this situation before? How would you like to see things done differently in the future?

BEN SHELTON: No, I mean, it's my third or fourth time playing over two days at Wimbledon. It's something that's normal, that you're used to when you're at a tournament where you kind of have to stop when the sun goes down, or if there's enough rain in the day, you have to stop.

It's normal, especially playing this long format. Sometimes that's just the way things shake out. Yeah, to stop when you're serving for the match, isn't as ideal. I thought we could have stopped earlier. My opponent was complaining since the end of the second set. It seemed like there was better times if they knew they were going to stop it, to stop it before it got to that point.

I think whether it was 3-2 or 4-2 or after the second set, there was plenty of time. But I understand the tournament has to make whatever decisions they have to make. Us as players, we just have to kind of go along with it.

So yeah, it's normal. It's part of tennis. Everything's not going to be the same whether it's weather conditions, whether it's the sun going down, just normal things they have to deal with.

For me, I'm just happy with the way I handled it coming out today and taking care of my business. I don't think that physically there's any big deal for me playing one game.

It's never ideal mentally having to wake up another day and be on and know that it's a match day. Obviously I went out there prepared to play two and a half sets. You can't just go out there be like, Yeah, I'm going to hold. What happens if you don't?

That's the tricky part, but all in all, really happy with the win.

Q. Taylor the other day talked about his situation, having to play a fifth set the next day. He said it was hard to switch off after he got back home after. Did you find that last night? When you got back to your hotel, house, were you able to relax a little bit?

BEN SHELTON: No, not really. That's the way it is. We're you're in the middle of a match, you're thinking about what you did, what you could have done, how you could have been off the court, what you're going to do when you get back out there.

For me it's what my game plan is going to be for that one service game to make sure that I hold. You can't really completely switch off. Yeah, I guess I would say I agree with Taylor.

Q. You started the season with a lot of technical changes... your backhand and hitting with a lot more power. How are you finding the changes so far?

BEN SHELTON: I think my backhand has improved a lot, especially my ability to deal with pace to the backhand, hitting low balls off the backhand, being able to put topspin on the backhand sometimes, and hit passing shots, which I used to only be able to really hit the lob off the backhand. I couldn't pass well often that side.

I think it's part of my evolution. It's not where I want to be yet. No shot in my game is really where I want it to be ultimately. It's just a work in progress.

So for me, I'm always out there competing, trying to figure out the answers. I would like every day to see my game evolving a little bit.

Q. In commentary, BBC said the reason for the stoppage last night was because there was not enough light for the electronic line calling to take place. What did the umpire or supervisor say to you exactly last night about the exact reason for stopping when he stopped?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, he said it was a five-minute warning until the Hawk-Eye was going down. That was, like, including the changeover, so there wouldn't be enough time to complete the game.

I was telling him, I only need 60 seconds (smiling). That's kind of what my goal was when I went out there today.

Yeah, he told me there wasn't enough time. I was like, Well, has it gone down yet, or did they give you the five-minute warning?

Well, they gave us the five-minute warning but we're not going to play until it goes down.

I was like, Why would we not play until it goes down? Let's just keep playing.

He was like, Oh, because we don't want it to be in the middle of the game.

I'm like, I'm already serving for the match.

At that point I'm not as upset about that decision. It was a difficult decision that was forced because of what they did earlier.

Q. You mentioned you obviously had to prepare to play however long it was going to take to win this thing. How do you find the balance between you can go out and serve four aces if you need to, you're going for broke, but also in the back of your mind preparing, what was your mental approach this morning?

BEN SHELTON: For me, I had a calculated approach with how I was going about my service game. I wasn't really going for four aces. The first serve was supposed to be forehand body. I missed my spot a little bit left. He guessed to the backhand. He full-out guessed for the T.

It ended up being an ace. Once I get my first ace in a service game, my confidence goes through the roof. After that I started going for aces and abandoned the plan we had.

It was supposed to be a body serve. The second point I wanted to hit a slower slider out wide. I think I missed a T serve that I went for, like, 147.

But, yeah, I kind of just improvised as it went.

Q. Why not go for aces?

BEN SHELTON: I wanted to make first serves. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't giving him second-serve looks or the ability to feel like he could swing out on the return.

I wanted him to feel like he had to chip it or block it to put it in the court and give me the opportunity to have the upper hand from the rally if I did get into it.

I just felt like I didn't have an amazing rhythm when I was serving yesterday. There was no reason to go big to the lines. If I was popping spots, and I felt really good, and chalk was flying every time I hit a serve, then yeah, I'd go out there and be like, Yeah, I'm going for spots.

For me, I just wanted to play it safe and go for the high percentage.

Q. Several of your answers in this press conference have lasted longer than your match today. It's 70 seconds on court overall today. How much was that a goal to send a message and have a little bit of race in the clock?

BEN SHELTON: Some people were talking about it after the match. It wasn't at all a single thought in my head. I got upset last night. I was completely over it.

The only thing I was thinking about today was holding serve, how I was going to hold serve, and putting it in my mind that it was going to be tough and he was going to make every return, and I was going to have to come up with stuff from the baseline or the net.

It ended up looking that way because of how it turned out, but that was not in my head at all. I wasn't trying to do anything. I was just competing, trying to win the match.

Q. Any cool-down after playing for 70 seconds?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I did. You guys want to do the cool-down? They're like, All right, yeah. Media in like 20 minutes. Okay. Should I shower (laughter)?

But, yeah, I guess just habit.

Q. You described the sort of words of the exchange. Was it tense? There was a weird moment where it seemed like he was strangely holding you back. All we saw was the video and couldn't hear what was going on.

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I don't think that I ever get disrespectful on the court. I try to get my point across.

I guess when he saw a guy my size walking quickly towards the umpire, maybe he thought I was ready to throw hands or something (laughter). I definitely wasn't.

I guess maybe I should apologize to Nacho if he felt scared up in the chair. I was upset in the moment. I wanted to get my point across. I think he was just trying to kind of defuse and keep me away from Nacho.

I got over it pretty quickly, and then we talked in the gym after. I just wanted to give them my thoughts about the situation. They gave me theirs on why everything happened. It didn't really escalate.

It probably looked more tense than it was, the whole holding back or staying in front of me. No, it was nothing.

Q. You're talking about how all the slams are different. A lot of people kind of said to me as a Brit, how can you stop a match with Taylor and stopping it here. Does it seem crazy the policy that Wimbledon has compared to the US Open or Australian that can go on till the middle of the night?

BEN SHELTON: I mean, it's tradition, I understand. It's also in a neighborhood. If it was in my neighborhood and they're playing till 2 a.m. every single night and going completely ballistic, I'd be like, I probably don't really want to live here.

I completely understand the curfew, for sure. Could you tell meet the reasoning why there's no lights on the outside courts?

Q. I've been asking about that. I think it's to do with the grass and how grass responds to having that kind of artificial light, but also it's slippy still.

BEN SHELTON: Anytime that it gets dark or the sun goes down, you don't have the heat on the court, it gets slippery, and it gets dangerous.

For me the slipperiness was the first problem in the back of the court before the light was a problem. Honestly, you probably don't need lights here. It's a scheduling thing.

I've been out here for five minutes. I don't have the answers. I just kind of do what they say and do my best to compete.

Q. Was there any chatter today either getting out there or afterward with either Rinky or the chair about the whole situation?

BEN SHELTON: No, not with the chair. I didn't see him. But Rinky in the gym a little bit last night just kind of our coaches with their thoughts, how upset they were at the situation with different things. They both thought the match should have been stopped either after the second set or after the ball change at 3-2 or 4-2 if it had to be even game.

They were just upset that it had gotten to the point it had gotten to, which can't blame them for that. We were just joking around about a few of the moments, the slips and falls. The 5-3 game where I was returning Love-40. I literally couldn't see the ball.

After the match today with Rinky, just kind of laughing about it. He was going on the doubles court, like, 15 minutes after our match. That was kind of funny.

Yeah, just a few laughs.

Q. Will you practice today the way you would have had you finished last night? Has today become a regular day between the Grand Slams?

BEN SHELTON: Usually I spend 45 minutes on the court day between, 45 minutes, 50 minutes, something like that. Today I spent like 30 minutes and 70 seconds on court.

But we just decided to relax for the rest of the day. Enough mental strain going into the match and having to get over the line. That's all. It's a little bit less time on court, but I don't think it's a big deal.

Q. In previous years when it has got too dark for the Hawk-Eye to work, when we have human line judges, players were allowed to carry on but they wouldn't be able to challenge decisions. If we had human line judges, do you think you could have gotten done? We think that might be the quickest session of tennis in Wimbledon history. How do you feel about breaking that record?

BEN SHELTON: I guess I'm the opposite of Isner, right? He got the longest. I got the shortest. USA...

Sorry, what was your first question again? Oh, the umpires.

Q. Human umpires, if the Hawk-Eye wasn't working...

BEN SHELTON: Obviously if the umpires were still there, we could play one more game. It's possible, right?

I mean, tennis is kind of going away from that. I don't think the Hawk-Eye system's perfect. I think we've seen that at earlier tournaments in the year, players taking pictures of marks on the clay and stuff.

In terms of the accuracy in a match, whether it was line calls on every point or Hawk-Eye every point, I feel like Hawk-Eye is probably a little bit better. There's probably fewer mistakes using Hawk-Eye for the whole match.

I think it's tough sometimes to wrap your head around when the machine makes a mistake and there's nothing you can do about it. Obviously the Hawk-Eye system is the same system we use with challenges. When you challenge, it could still not be accurate, as well.

I don't really know what the best option is in terms of line calling. But I do think that taking out the human error in line calling has probably helped in some matches. I don't know about every match.

Q. You spoke a few minutes ago about the evolution of your game on grass and some of the different strokes. In terms of your serve, what do you remember first thinking about your serve as a weapon on grass? What do you think about it today?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I've always thought of my serve as a weapon since I turned pro. Even more so relying on it earlier in my career than now.

I think it's an art being able to serve on grass, though, because when guys have a mindset that they're either just going to chip one side or both sides or block the return back in the court, and you're hitting big serves, but if you're not hitting spots, that ball can be low and on you, which a ball from the baseline normally I used to not love when it was low and kind of sliding through. I would struggle with that ball.

I had to learn how to hit serves on the grass that were still effective but gave me something a little bit higher in the zone that I liked, something that I could feel confident serving and volleying on, finding forehands on the first ball.

Serving on every surface is an art. Clay, it's an art. This was the first year I started felt like I was able to go through my service games on the clay. The grass, too. To be able to get to your plus-ones and feel confident in the shots after the serve.