OMNIUM BANQUE NATIONALE

August 9, 2026

Ben Shelton

Mixed Zone

B. SHELTON/J. Fonseca

6-3, 7-6

BEN SHELTON: Yeah. It's always a confidence builder when you're down a break and you get it back. Had two huge games at the beginning of each set today, which kind of set me back, but I was having return and kind of got back in the match. So definitely look to not have those type of issues.

Q. What do you attribute your success to?

BEN SHELTON: I think just dealing with the conditions really well. It was super windy. It's impossible to play clean, pretty tennis with the wind.

So just problem solve, figure things out. Some bad misses, they're going to happen on a night like tonight. And just keep coming forward to the net and put the pressure on.

Q. First set, long game. How important was it for you?

BEN SHELTON: I mean, huge to get a late break. Obviously, I had scoreboard pressure. It's a big piece of my game for me to try to work on and evolve in that way.

I want to be someone who breaks through often, and this hasn't been the case in the past, but been much more consistent lately.

Q. Both of you started the game without losing a set. How were you able to close it out?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah. Played a great tiebreaker. I played a clean tiebreaker. Only one really bad miss that I wasn't proud of.

I don't think I lost a point on serve. That's always important. And that was the turning point, putting pressure there. For me it was my return of serve, being able to get into his service game.

Q. Is it a great advantage to be a great server when it comes to playing another great server?

BEN SHELTON: I don't really understand that question.

Q. He's a great server, but only 50 percent on the first serve.

BEN SHELTON: I don't know that the guy is going to be at 50 percent going into the match. I think that obviously you serve really well. (Audio difficulties). As the match went on later in the set, hit the right spots at the right time.