Ben Shelton is through to the quarterfinal of the Mexican Open after managing to overcome Matteo Arnaldi.
The American only barely made it to the second round of the ATP 500 event. This is after Shelton won an incredible battle against Dan Evans in the last round. He needed five match points to eventually claim victory.
The 21-year-old has also been generating attention relating to matters outside the court as well. An example of this is Shelton recently speaking about his commitment to sustainability issues.
However, Shelton would have known he needed to let his tennis do the talking against Arnaldi. The Italian is a tricky opponent, and he showed why that is the case throughout this contest.
Shelton started the match slowly. He lost his serve early on, with the Italian getting a good immediate read on the American's huge serve. But Shelton managed to gather himself and broke back a few games later.
There were no further breaks of service, and a tiebreak was needed to decide the opening set. Shelton then dominated with some incredible shots. Arnaldi was powerless, and the 21-year-old took the tiebreak 7-1.
Shelton also began the second set slowly. Arnaldi took full advantage and hit some impressive forehands on his way to a second break of the match.
That was the only advantage the Italian needed in set 2. Shelton made a lot of unforced errors in his return games and did not give himself a chance of being able to break. Arnaldi took the second set 6-3.
However, Shelton then raised his level significantly in the deciding set. Although Arnaldi helped him by missing a lot of first serves, the American began to hit the ball sweetly and was also sharp at the net.
That combination led to Shelton breaking twice to go 5-1 up. He seemed to get slightly complacent and was then broken, but Shelton did not make a mistake on his second chance to serve it out. Last year's US Open semifinalist claimed a 7-6 3-6 6-3 victory.
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