Shelton Facing Challenging Race Against Time After Winning Title In Tokyo
ATP
Ben Shelton played a lot of tennis in Asia, but he's not tired and ready to take on the European indoor season.
While the American did admit to some heavy legs after his win over Marcos Giron on Saturday, none of that proved a problem earlier on Sunday when he bested Aslan Karatsev in the Tokyo final.
It was a fabulous performance from the American, who lifted his maiden trophy with a win at the 2023 Japan Open. It's a pretty big one for Shelton because it secured him a new career high and put him in striking distance of the ATP Finals.
Booking a place in the final eight will require a pretty strong run in the next few weeks, but he's actually ready for it. Despite playing a lot of tennis recently in Asia, Shelton admitted that he's feeling quite fresh after the Japan Open final, which is surprising.
In his words, it's because he lost quite a bit of matches earlier in the season, which is why his match count is low. On top of that, motivation to play at the ATP Finals is certainly high, and that's why he'll likely travel to Austria to compete at the 2023 Vienna Open.
Earlier in the season I was losing early a lot of weeks. So my match count isn’t too high (smiling). I actually feel fairly fresh going into this last home stretch. Really looking forward to going back to Europe and finishing this indoor season strong.- Shelton, on finishing the season strongly
He's actually right as he only played 45 matches so far, which puts him at number 32 on the ATP Tour. It's quite a bit less than Daniil Medvedev who played the most matches this year on ATP Tour with 74.
Even so, it's going to be a short turnaround for the Vienna Open and a rather lengthy flight. He's facing Jannik Sinner in the opening round of the event, which will be interesting as Shelton bested Sinner in Shanghai recently.
