Shelton Stopped From Miraculously Winning Another Three-Setter By Ruthless Ruud

Ben Shelton was having a great week at the 2024 Mexican Open in Acapulco, until Casper Ruud stopped him in the quarter-finals.

The American has been playing solid tennis in 2024. He's yet to win a trophy, but at the ATP 500 tournament in Acapulco, he was certainly one of the candidates, especially after a couple of hard-fought wins.

However, his quarter-final opponent from Norway, just came off a final run in Los Cabos, and it seems that Ruud is having a great form in Mexico, as he managed to prevail also in this match against the 21-year-old.

Shelton had a chance to improve his career-best ranking at the tournament, but he'll likely remain 15th also on Monday, despite starting well in the last quarter-final match of the Friday's schedule.

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After the Norwegian couldn't use the only break point chance of the opening set, the tie-break had to decide the winner, and while Shelton faced two set points, he saved both and won the tie-break 9-7 to take the first set.

However, when facing break points in the second set, the American didn't manage to be so effective. He was broken in the crucial ninth game of the set, and since his opponent was serving perfectly, there was no way of coming back as Ruud won the set 6-4.

The former world no. 2 denied his opponent break point chances also in the third game, but once again, he managed to create a few for himself.

This time around, the third break point was needed for Ruud to break, but thanks to perfect serving, he was able to win the third set, and the match 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-4, to set up a Scandinavian semi-final clash in Mexico.

He will be taking on the second-seeded Holger Rune, who defeated Dominik Koepfer in two tie-breaks.

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