Ben Shelton shocked the tennis world when he toppled world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz in a five-set thriller that ran deep into the morning hours of Wednesday. Well, not everyone was shocked.
“I’ve been saying for a long time, he will be the first American to win the Grand Slam out of this group of guys that are all fighting for it now,” TCU assistant tennis coach Scott Perelman told The Post in a phone interview Wednesday.
Perelman jokingly admitted his biases toward Shelton, having known the American tennis star since he was 9, when Perelman was working under Shelton’s father, Bryan, as a tennis coach at the University of Florida.
It was the same place where Perelman worked closely with Shelton years later, when Shelton won the NCAA singles championship in 2022.
Now Shelton could be on the verge of ending the long-running drought of no American man winning a Grand Slam title since Andy Roddick at the 2003 U.S. Open.
First, he’ll have to go through fellow countryman Frances Tiafoe, but what has gotten Shelton to this point?
Perelman had a few thoughts on the topic.
“Since he turned pro, there’s been constant improvement, and his dad Bryan has done a wonderful job, not only with his game, but with helping him be prepared for a moment like what happened last night,” said Perelman, who still keeps in touch with the Shelton family.
“The look he had in his eye when I saw him play the first two matches and the way he handled himself last night … I often referred to him — coaching him as riding Secretariat, the greatest horse of all time. And last night, everything was in order. He had total control over his emotions. And it was a beautiful thing to watch.”
Shelton’s win over Alcaraz made him just the second American man in the past 20 years to earn a top 3 win at the U.S. Open, adding to the lore of the dramatic 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (7) win at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Coincidentally, the other one to do it was Tiafoe when he defeated Rafael Nadal in 2022.
The meeting between the two Americans in the semifinals is a sign of things to come for American men’s tennis, with it being a topic of conversation over the course of the tournament in Flushing Meadows.
Coming into the U.S. Open, and with Jannik Sinner not participating in this year’s tournament, many had viewed this year as the best chance for the Grand Slam drought to come to an end. Shelton’s dramatic upset and Tiafoe’s impressive five-set comeback win earlier in the week have guaranteed that an American will appear in the U.S. Open final this weekend.
Tiafoe called the American’s success this year at the U.S. Open incredible.
“The guys, we’ve been doing pretty well. Someone is always going deep in majors,” he said. “[Taylor] Fritz has been playing great for a long time, Ben and myself. We have Learner [Tien]. Obviously, you have Alex Michelsen, Tommy [Paul]. There’s a good group of us that are playing really good. I mean, hopefully we can do the thing, and that’s ultimately try to do the thing after two weeks. That’s like the next big step. I think U.S. tennis is in a great place.”
And as for Shelton, according to Perelman, a stage like Friday’s semifinals is where he thrives.
“He loves the game and loves being on a big stage. … This is how he’s wired,” he said.
