Ben Shelton played exhilarating tennis last week to win the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) in Frankfurt, and he was handsomely rewarded for his efforts.
The UTS did not receive the same hype as the Six Kings Slam, which took place during the same week and featured Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, and Holger Rune. However, it was still a great event.
Shelton, Ugo Humbert, Dominic Thiem, who played his final professional match at the Vienna Open on Tuesday, Gael Monfils, and Denis Shapovalov were some of the men who featured at the tournament in Frankfurt.
Humbert was ahead in Sunday's final against Shelton, but the American recovered impressively to defeat the Frenchman and win the UTS title after a high-quality contest.
Surprisingly, Humbert's first match at the Swiss Indoors in Basel was the opening match on Centre Court on Monday. That meant he had less than 24 hours to fly to Austria and recover from the UTS final before playing again.
Shelton criticized the tournament and the ATP for not giving Humbert more recovery time. It seemed particularly unfair when the UTS champion played his opening match in Basel on Tuesday, giving him additional time to rest.
The 2023 US Open semifinalist's battle against Tomas Martin Etcheverry on Tuesday contained a controversial moment. Shelton was incorrectly awarded a point that should have been the Argentine's, giving the 22-year-old a chance to break that he immediately took.
Although the mistake was clearly the umpire's fault, Shelton was criticized by some for not replaying the point or giving it to Etcheverry. He responded that it was impossible for him to see what happened from the other side of the court.
Shelton did not seem overly concerned by those attacking him on social media after the incident in Basel. The significant sum of money he earned for his efforts at the UTS might make any criticism of him less hurtful.
Shelton collected $377,400 after winning the UTS in Frankfurt. That made it the most financially rewarding tournament of his season, making his appearance at the event more than worth his time.
That amount is not close to the $6 million Sinner earned for winning the Six Kings Slam or the $1.5 million the other players were guaranteed just for playing at the exhibition, but Shelton's winnings were still significant.
The other men who competed at the UTS also received healthy sums for their achievements in Frankfurt. Humbert, Thanasi Kokkinakis, and Lorenzo Musetti all won $266,400 from their matches.
Jan-Lennard Struff and Denis Shapovalov were not as successful as Shelton, Humbert, Kokkinakis, and Musetti, but they still had $144,300 added to their bank accounts after the Six Kings Slam.
Monfils and Thiem lost all their matches at the UTS in Frankfurt. However, the experienced duo still made $99,900 from their time at the event.
The lucrative prize money on offer is undoubtedly a reason why tournaments outside the ATP Tour, like the Six Kings Slam and the UTS, are attractive to players, and that reality will not change anytime soon.