Ben Shelton has had an amazing breakout year on the ATP Tour, and he's been nominated for the Most Improved Player of the Year award.
How much somebody improves is highly subjective because we all have our own standards; however, there are some things most people can agree upon. We can all agree that Ben Shelton had an incredible season where he not only improved as a player but became one of the best.
The American started the year inside the Top 100, albeit barely, and impressed everybody with his tremendous level at the Australian Open. His tennis was quite limited at the time as he greatly benefitted from the conditions.
He did most of his damage with the serve, but the potential was there. As the year progressed, Shelton grew both in skill and confidence. Results weren't present for a while, but you could see him growing as a player.
The lead-up to the US Open was bad, as he was basically beaten in most matches he played. That was a valuable lesson to Shelton as he unleashed all of his potential at the US Open.
He made the semi-final, losing to Djokovic, but emerged as a much better player. That event improved him dramatically as a player, let alone the hardships from the rest of the season.
His maiden trophy came not long after that at the Japan Open, and that would be the last great thing he would do this year.
He was so good this year that he technically had a chance to qualify for the ATP Finals. That's quite amazing and certainly worthy of the Most Improved Player of the Year award.
It's an award that generally goes to a player who played on the ATP Tour before, and while Shelton did only briefly, he improved so much this year that it warrants a nomination.
To win the award, the American will face a tough competition as Jannik Sinner, Christopher Eubanks, and Matteo Arnaldi were all nominated for the award.
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