Ben Shelton is keeping his Japan Open run going after enduring another close battle in the Japanese capital against Jordan Thomspon.
Many expected Alexander Zverev to come out of that first-round match against Jordan Thompson, but it was the Australian who produced a really good effort to take down Zerev and set up this matchup against Shelton.
Shelton himself had a tricky first-round matchup but produced a good enough effort to secure a spot in the next round, and it repeated today. It was a very close matchup, which we kind of expected, but Shelton found a way to win it in the end.
The opening set went to a tiebreak, which is the least shocking thing about this matchup. Shelton dominated on his serve, allowing very few chances on the serve of Thompson.
The Australian had to save more break points in the match, but he held his serve in those situations, which is what happened in the tiebreak as well.
Shelton was up a mini break, but the Aussie proved better in the end, beating him 7-5. The second set was another close one as neither player found a breakthrough early, with the final game of the set featuring the only break points we saw. Shelton created them and used them to win the set 6-4 and force a decider.
It looked like a momentum-shifting moment because Thompson played an excellent set of tennis, but it still wasn't enough against the American. He kept his momentum going in the final set, jumping out to an early lead, and as you might imagine, it proved enough.
He finished it off to seal the 6-7(5) 6-4 6-3 victory behind 12 aces and really strong play. He's keeping it going despite the fatigue, and it's great to see a star emerging in front of our eyes into the Japan Open quarter-finals.
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