MUBADALA DC OPEN

July 25, 2026

Ben Shelton

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Ben, welcome back to D.C. Late add this year to be a wild card, but what made you want to play the event again?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, for me, this is an event I love to come to. It feels like home here. I've got a lot of family here, and it's a tournament that I've played well at.

I enjoy any opportunity to be able to play here in the U.S., so grateful for the wild card and getting a chance to be here again.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Just checking in, how have you been since Wimbledon, and how are you sort of feeling about your season so far at this point?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, it's been a weird season for me this year. A lot of highs, a lot of lows. Obviously I've won more titles than I've ever won in a year. Only halfway done with the year.

At the same time, there's so many things that I've been frustrated about, disappointed with in my game. I think that there's a lot of room for improvement on the second half of the year, and I'm in a part of the season that I really enjoy and that I play really well in.

So no matter how I come off the European season, I usually am pretty good at finding my form here on the hard courts. The last three weeks for me in terms of training has been great, and I'm really looking forward to getting started here.

Obviously I feel the most comfortable playing on this surface and in these conditions. It being hot outside, I think it's a huge advantage for me. So just excited to get started.

Q. It's a rarity for you to have the early exit like you did at Wimbledon. I'm wondering how you took advantage of the unexpected time maybe, and did that contribute maybe to accepting a wild card and wanting to get back on the court here?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, for me to be able to go to Florida right away a couple of days after I lost in Wimbledon and get acclimated to the heat right away and start training immediately, it was big for me.

I think that fitness is a big part of this part of the season just because of how hot it is and how brutal the conditions can be. So it was nice to get a head start on that. I guess that was kind of the positive that I took away from losing in the first round in a tournament that, like you said, I usually make deep runs and play well at, but that's tennis.

For me, yeah, it's a great opportunity now to start playing a little bit earlier on the hard court season and get prepared for the US Open.

Q. You just mentioned being a little bit frustrated about some aspects of your game. Can you speak to some things that are frustrating you and perhaps some things you want to look forward to improving for this North American hard court swing?

BEN SHELTON: For me, I think for me overall I'd say performance. I don't know how much of it has been just my level or specific matches, specific situations, decision-making. But for me, obviously, I'm somebody who I try to be consistent, I try to be consistent with the way I train, the way I live, how I go about my day-to-day life.

I guess more the inconsistency of my play is what I've been more frustrated about. Obviously one of my biggest goals on tour is to get to the end of tournaments and finish off the week and win titles, which is a part that I didn't have as much before that I'm getting better and better at now.

So I think some of the frustration comes from those early-round exits that are kind of like the trap rounds for me. I think that being able to be more consistent week in and week out in those situations is important for me.

But it's tough. You know, the tour is deep. A lot of times I'm playing with a bye or I'm playing somebody who came through quallies, and playing somebody who is in form at the beginning of a tournament is difficult.

We play on a deep tour. There's a lot of great players out here. I'm not saying it's something that is easy, but it's something that I'm striving and working towards.

Q. I'm wondering if you had seen the comments from the Canadian Open organizers about Jannik and Novak dropping out of that, how they're going to start talking to the ATP about what they can do --

BEN SHELTON: Who dropped out?

Q. Jannik and Novak out of Canada, and the Canada Open organizers were saying, we need to talk to the ATP and do something about this. It's happening too often basically. I wonder if you make anything of just even the tournaments now saying, okay, something is not right here.

BEN SHELTON: For the tournaments and the players, I'm not sure how sustainable the current setup of the tour is. I think for me the biggest thing I'm seeing is the injuries.

But then you have a guy like Sinner, who is winning as many matches as he is, his match count is so high. How is the guy going to go and play every tournament? I don't think it's sustainable.

Obviously he knows his body better than everyone, as do all the players out here. If they feel fit and ready to compete and mentally ready, they're going to go play the tournament. They're not just going to sit out for no reason, in my opinion.

So there's got to be some sort of give, but actually I didn't see anything about it, and this is my first hearing anything about it.

Q. Sort of piggybacking on that a little bit in terms of we've seen the changes that possibly might be coming to doubles, and you're playing doubles here, as well. How often are you using doubles as sort of extra training for you on court, or is it something you want to incorporate more into your game? Is that even possible for you as a singles player who is doing five sets at a Grand Slam?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, when I came out on tour, obviously I went to college, so doubles is a big part of college tennis. I was in the mindset that I was going to play singles and doubles every week, and I quickly learned that that's not really sustainable. So I kind of started cutting out doubles from Grand Slams, but I still try to play at a lot of the other tournaments.

I think it's a great opportunity for me to prepare for my singles. Obviously I enjoy it. I have fun. So I try to get out there as much as possible.

Yeah, I think for me it's a great tool and a way to get ready competitively for my singles matches.

Q. You haven't been on tour that many years, but there's been talk from some of the ATP guys about the ball quality getting worse, the quality of the balls. I'm curious how much you pay attention to that, how sensitive you are to those sorts of things and what you make of that discourse around that issue?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I mean, I think that it's something that's kind of well known at this point. Obviously it is one of the issues of our tour, but for me it's tough to, like, be ready to play mentally when you are thinking about all the time what's wrong with the court or the ball or the conditions. At some point you just have to suck it up.

I know that making change is important, and certain things do need to be spoken about, but for me, the changing conditions, the ball is not something that I can let occupy my mind all the time and still be able to play and compete well.

Honestly, it's not something that I've thought about in a while. Whenever I'm here in the U.S., the hard court feels pretty good, and the Wilson US Open ball feels pretty good too, so I guess that's all I have to say on that.

Q. Do you ever feel a situation where you open a can of ball and think, wow, these balls are bad?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, 100%. Especially at practice sometimes when we're at home, you know, not the balls that they use or ship to a tournament. I think that I would like to think that the pro tournaments still get the best quality of balls.

I think that sometimes now if you are buying balls off the shelf, they may not always be the same quality or you might get dud balls. I felt like the last three weeks I definitely opened some cases of balls that I felt like, oh, these ones are duds. I think that does happen some.

I don't know how much it happens out here on the tour. I haven't noticed it as much, but definitely on certain surfaces that are more gritty and certain brands of balls that are heavier, it can become a problem.