Ben Shelton played his first grass match of the 2024 ATP season at the Stuttgart Open, but he immediately lost to James Duckworth.
The young American was coming off of a rough clay season in which he didn't really play his best tennis. He admitted that those struggles are normal because he's still a young player trying to figure things out, especially on the clay court.
His goal is to play as many matches as possible and improve as a player, which he's slowly but surely doing. Grass is an interesting surface for Shelton, as he should technically do well on it, given his weapons.
He has a massive serve and plays aggressively, but his grass season didn't go well last year. His first match this year didn't go well either because the American was beaten in his first match in Stuttgart.
His opponent was James Duckworth, who is a tricky but beatable opponent, especially for the third-highest-ranked American on the ATP Tour. The first set of their match ended up in a tie-break, as both were able to keep their serve relatively comfortably.
Shelton opened better, taking an early 4-1 lead, but then completely lost control, losing several points in a row to ultimately lose the tiebreak 5-7.
That wasn't good from Shelton, but he could find inspired play in the second set and fight back. He took it 6-4, so the match had to be decided in the third set, which ended up being a huge battle.
The resolution came towards the end of that set when Shelton ran into some trouble on his serve, eventually losing it. It was an unfortunate conclusion to his trip to Stuttgart, but these are the growing pains a young player like him has to go through.
Eventually, he'll find the solution; he just has to endure these tough moments. However, in Stuttgart, his campaign ended with a loss to Duckworth, 6-7(5), 6-4, 3-6.