“I didn’t love tennis at first,” says Ben Shelton. “I really wanted to do other things, but I came back to it.”
Ben Shelton, a rising American star, has reminisced on his early tennis career and how he was exposed to the sport.
The American is now participating in the Asian tennis swing and preparing for his first-round match at the 2023 Japan Open. He’ll enter Tokyo fresh off a strong quarterfinal showing at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.
The kid took time to reflect on the start of his tennis career and how he was first introduced to the sport. Shelton emphasized that, while he didn’t have a strong preference for tennis and found satisfaction in other sports, he eventually returned to it.
“I think my first memory is of being a very young child and my parents introducing me to tennis for the first time with a tennis racket and a balloon.” I didn’t enjoy tennis at first and didn’t want to be a part of it; I preferred to participate in other sports. But I returned to it. “I think the first professional match I won in Illinois was probably the moment I realized I wanted to be a tennis player,” Shelton stated in the ATP’s latest tennis podcast.
This year has been a watershed moment for the 21-year-old on the men’s circuit. His season began in Melbourne, where he reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open for the first time. He overcame opponents like Alexei Popyrin and J.J. Wolf before succumbing to Tommy Paul in the last eight.
Shelton’s stunning performance continued with a run to the US Open semifinals, putting to rest any suspicions that his triumph in Melbourne was a fluke. He reflected on his outstanding start to the year, expressing renewed confidence in his ability to participate in major events.
I’ve never done five sets, much alone the last five, in my career, and I proved to myself that I was physically enough to participate in Grand Slams and emotionally strong enough to compete in front of large crowds. “I think that helped me gain a lot of confidence this year,” he continued.
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