Ben Shelton debuted in Asia, beating Jaume Munar in straight sets to get his Shanghai Masters campaign underway.
Shelton has been amazing lately, which is a welcome sight for all fans because he couldn't find much consistency during his maiden full ATP season. Leading up to the US Open, Shelton looked very deer in the headlights, failing to win multiple matches as the Tour seemingly caught up with what makes him great.
Throw that argument out of the window because the American proved the opposite at the US Open, making his way to the semi-final, which secured him a Top 20 debut. He followed that up with some great performances in the Laver Cup, basically being the team's MVP as they cruised past the world. After pulling out of the China Open, he made his debut in Shanghai, and it was a good one.
To be fair he got a pretty good draw because Jaume Munar is not a great hardcourt player but he can hold his own. Shanghai though plays rather fast and fits better with what Shelton does well which he demonstrated quite well.
The opening set was a dominant display as Shelton didn't face a single break point in the 6-4 effort. He actually lost only 2 points behind his first serve in the whole set. The second one saw him deal with a bit more resistance as he faced some break points.
He saved all of them to keep himself in the lead and finished off the job confidently. An excellent showing from Shelton, who has finally come into his own and hopes to finish off the year on a high note. We're entering part of the year, which should benefit his style of play greatly, so he's likely to score plenty more wins. The final score in this one was 6-4 6-4.
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