US OPEN

September 6, 2026

Ben Shelton

Press Conference

B. SHELTON/S. Tsitsipas

6-2, 6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. Impressive three sets, under two hours. Your thoughts?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I thought I played well. Good, clean match. Happy to be back in the quarters here.

Yeah, I'm happy with how I went about my business tonight.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Next up you have Carlitos. Have you been following his comeback? How do you see him? What kind of challenge do you expect against him?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, we practiced together before the tournament. I've been watching his matches. I think he's playing extremely high level.

To me, he looks very normal -- his normal, I mean -- which is impressive after not playing for five months. I think it will be a great match. I'm excited for the battle. Never played him here in New York, and obviously in the position that I want to be in.

Q. Speaking of Carlos, how do you think your game has changed and improved since you last played him in Paris last year?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I thought I played a good match in Paris, but I think I'm serving better, returning much better. I think my shot tolerance from the baseline, overall quality from the baseline, and my movement have improved. I think that, you know, it's definitely going to be a different match playing here.

Yeah, I think those are the areas that have probably changed the most for me.

Q. You've always got that serve in your back pocket as a weapon. In your mind, what was the difference tonight from, say, just in terms of your crispness overall as a game? What was the difference tonight from your first three matches? How do you replicate that going forward when you're playing Carlos?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I was just more focused. I was more stable and even emotionally.

You know, that's a big part for me being able to just move on to the next point, not hear any of the outside noise and just kind of lock in.

I thought that's what I did the best tonight. It wasn't my AA tennis. I didn't do anything perfect, by any means. But because I was so focused and was able to repeat what I was doing point after point, I felt I was able to get into a lot of return games and put pressure on.

Finally, for the first time this tournament, I had a focus-purposeful service performance, and that's not just the serve, but what I do with the first and second ball after the serve.

So just happy to be through a match where I didn't get broken.

Q. That whole section now is Carlos and three American guys. Do you guys talk at all like how much we want to be the one to stop him, anything like that, how much you guys embrace this chance?

BEN SHELTON: Have we talked about that specifically, no.

Q. You went out to the practice courts for a little bit after your match tonight. Just what was the decision-making around that and how was the session?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I took the day off yesterday. I wanted to kind of get my legs back and get back on a good schedule after playing till 2:00 in the morning.

So there were a few things that didn't feel perfect out there today that I just wanted to clean up. Obviously I have tomorrow to clean them up, as well. But at this point, obviously if you're feeling good physically, that's first and foremost, most important. Then after that, just fine-tuning.

Q. A nontennis question, so bear with me. The US Open every year runs along the same time as back to school for a lot of kids around the country. When you were in elementary school, high school, even at UF, when you saw advertisements for back-to-school sale or this time of year back to school, were you someone excited about this time of year, getting ready for it, indifferent, hated it?

BEN SHELTON: Honestly, I loved it. Obviously summer's over, but back to school, you get to see your friends again, get some new shoes, first day of school fit, new pencils and pens, no books. All this stuff that shouldn't matter at all. It's the biggest moment ever (smiling).

Walking into Target or Walmart and parents letting you buy everything, like, I need it for my studies, you know. Honestly, great times, great memories. I'm glad you brought that up.

Q. Your most memorable buy?

BEN SHELTON: You know those mechanical pencils, had all the different colors? Yeah, I loved those.