ROLAND GARROS

May 22, 2026

Ben Shelton

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Ben, welcome back to Paris. How has your preparation been for this year's Roland Garros?

BEN SHELTON: It's been good for me. I went and played Hamburg last week to get some matches, and I think to be able to play in the slow, cold conditions is really good to prepare me for the tournament here.

I feel really confident when it's hot, when the ball is moving fast, so to be able to feel a little bit more comfortable. If I play a night match, the temperature drops, the ball is not moving as much. I feel pretty good and always confident at the slams.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Last time I saw you in Munich, and you won a car there. What happens with that car? Do you get one in the U.S., which is the same car, or does this one get shipped over to the U.S.? What happens with that car?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I think a car arrives in the U.S. I'm certainly not going to keep it in Europe (laughing).

Q. I was just wondering if BMW in the U.S. can give you the same car but made in the U.S. or whatever?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I'm honestly not sure. Maybe when I get home in six months, it will be there at my doorstep, but I honestly don't know how it works.

Q. Just wanted to ask about your season overall. How are you feeling? It's been a couple of titles at 500s. 1000s haven't been as good for you. What's your overall temperature reading of 2026 so far?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, it's been super up and down for me. Honestly I've been kind of disappointed in my season, and I look, and I'm sixth in the race, but I think that that inconsistency has been a big piece for me that I've been trying to iron out and improve.

It certainly hasn't been an easy year for me on the court, off the court, but that's one piece moving forward that I'm definitely trying to get better at. At the same time, to be able to be finishing out weeks and finishing, you know, when I do make runs with titles is another one of my big goals.

So on one side, very happy, and on the other side, you know, there's a lot to improve upon, get better at. I'm still not the player that I want to be, and I have a lot of work to do, but winning titles and going deep at slams is my biggest goals, for sure.

Q. Sorry about your grandmother.

BEN SHELTON: Thank you.

Q. Just wanted to get you to sort of talk through, I imagine after you won Munich, you probably got pretty sky-high confidence about where your clay court game was going, and then had some, like you said, some results that disappointed you. I'm curious what that was like, and do those results affect you? How do you still hang on to what happened in Munich and maybe carry that through, or is it just tennis is week by week by week, and everything goes as it goes?

BEN SHELTON: A little bit of both. I'm kind of looking at my performances and the level that I play, not just the result. Madrid didn't hurt me that much. I thought I played a good match. I ended up losing early to Prizmic.

Rome and Hamburg I was a little bit more disappointed. Rome more with my level, and then Hamburg, you know, I was -- in the second round I served for the match, which I'm not sure how many times on tour I've served for a match and lost the match, but better to happen there than here at the slam.

I think it's just one of those sports where you go through certain parts of the year, you're in a flow state, certain parts of the year that it goes a lot worse. It's probably still my best clay season to date so far going into Roland Garros.

I think at the same time there's certain tournaments that I feel really comfortable on that type of clay. Munich is one of them. Still haven't figured out Madrid and Rome, and I know I love playing here.

I'm definitely, as of right now, an environment player. There are certain environments that I love playing in, that I'm really comfortable in, and there are certain ones that I'm working to get better at, for sure. But in terms of where my confidence level is at, it doesn't do that much to me.

Q. Just in terms of the technical aspects of your clay game and the evolution of it, what do you feel like you're much better at, and what do you feel like still has got some room for improvement?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I think sometimes I feel like I'm moving at a high level, really elite level on the clay. Sometimes I'm, like, you know, some of these footwork patterns still need work. I just need to become a better mover on the surface.

I think that the biggest piece from me is what my identity is on the clay, how I want to play, and from surface to surface that can vary a lot, which makes it difficult, because something that works in Munich may not work in Rome, or something that works really well at Roland Garros may not work in Hamburg.

I think that that's the beauty of clay and also the difficulty. Each week you have to be able to adapt and sometimes play a completely different game style based on the conditions. I think that's maybe not a technical piece, but it's one of the most important pieces.

Q. Just a couple of weeks away is the World Cup in your home country. How invested will you be in that World Cup? The U.S. team looks really bad, so what do you think?

BEN SHELTON: Where are you from?

Q. I'm from Austria. We look good. We look good, I can tell you that.

BEN SHELTON: I don't know anything about the Austrian football team.

Q. You should.

BEN SHELTON: I haven't heard any news, but obviously I was going to back the USA on home soil. I was thinking that at first you were French, and I would have given you that, because they're very, very good. Now I'm, like, really, dude?

But I'll probably be more invested in Wimbledon than the World Cup, but I'll be watching, for sure.

Q. U.S. tennis looks good, that's for sure. I'm curious, as I understand it, you are part of the player boycott, right, the player protest today? I'm curious, there's been talk about actually boycotting tournaments. Do you think that players would be willing to actually, like if the slams continue not to listen to you, to make a stand that would hurt them in order to kind of achieve the goals? Like, for example, I imagine there was an option today to not do press at all, to take a fine. Do you think players would be willing to do that, or is that too much?

BEN SHELTON: No, I mean, from what I've heard, I think that players are -- especially top players are willing to do more than most people think. You know, the first that finally came out and said something about it was Aryna, who is obviously a world No. 1. Right? Yeah, sorry.

Yeah, I think for us a lot of the talk is about the prize money, which is part of our letter, but it's not the only piece of it. We want a seat at the table. We want to be able to be heard, respected.

You know, there's other issues, whether it's pension, benefits that solely land on the ATP or -- wow, I'm blanking right now -- bonus pool. All other things that I think have been considered. I think Coco said something about this also, but we're not just trying to look out for ourselves or line our pockets.

I think that everyone knows how much revenue these tournaments are making, and sometimes for a player who is 150 in the world or 200 in the world, this is the one tournament where they get a big check. At a challenger I think maybe if you win the tournament, you get, like, 7 grand.

Adding prize money in a tournament like this four times a year can really help keep their year in the green instead of the red. I think that the players are playing at such a high level, and we have so many talented players in the top 200 and even outside that you should be able to make a living playing this sport being ranked at that place, and that's not the case right now.

Q. Maybe it's not as good as the famous Austrian soccer team, but --

BEN SHELTON: Yes, yes, thank you, thank you.

Q. No one talks about Austria really in this sport, but how does it --

BEN SHELTON: I didn't say that. I didn't say that.

Q. The transcript will reflect who said that. How does it feel to be the U.S. No. 1 for the longest stretch you've held it so far, a few months, and how important is that for you? Obviously you have other goals, but that's still a meaningful achievement.

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I think it's a cool thing to think about, to be able to, you know, sort of carry the flag for our country. I think that being able to see the growth of American tennis and see the young guys that are coming through and -- not the guys who have already made it, but the guys that you don't even know their name yet.

Obviously I live in Orlando. The National Center is there, so I'm seeing these young kids all the time who are very good players coming up, 16, 17, practicing with them sometimes. For me that's the coolest part to kind of be around them and give them some exposure to playing with a top-10 guy and see some of their trajectory and get to know some of those kids has been really fun.

I think I enjoyed that piece of it more, because I know when I was a kid and I got to hit every once in a while with one of the pros at the USTA, it was, like, crazy for me. I was starstruck, and it honestly helped a lot.

So that's more of what I think about when I think about U.S. tennis, but I'm excited about the place that we're in. I'm excited to see Taylor Fritz back playing again after being injured for a while.

I guess I have more of a team view when I think of U.S. tennis, even though currently I'm U.S. No. 1, more than the competition.

Q. Are there any of those names that people may not know yet in Orlando who jump out to you?

BEN SHELTON: Jordan Lee, yeah.