Ben Shelton won the 2024 Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) in Frankfurt after some inspired comebacks along the way.
Another edition of the UTS was held in Frankfurt from October 18th to 20th. As always, the field of players was very exciting for the crowd in Frankfurt, who came in large numbers to enjoy the show.
On the first day of the competition, which is played with special rules in the first-to-three-quarters format, Ben Shelton, nicknamed 'The Mountain' at the event, started with a hard-fought win over Jan Lennard Struff, having to come back from a one-quarter deficit, winning 15-16, 14-12, 17-13, 11-20, and 2-0.
On Day 2 of the tournament, the American player, who last played in Shanghai and lost to Jannik Sinner, recorded a brutal loss to Lorenzo Musetti, who bested him easily 17-11, 17-9, and 19-10. With the first two advancing from each four-man group, Shelton knew he had to win the remaining match to keep himself in play.
His opponent was Gael Monfils, and once again, the match had to be decided in sudden death, but Shelton won again, 19-10, 9-18, 20-10, 14-15, and 2-0. That win sealed him a spot in the semi-finals, but he only advanced from the second place.
That meant that in the semi-finals, he had to play the first player from the other group, who was Thanasi Kokkinakis. The Australian was playing some inspired tennis at the event, so much so that his opponent Denis Shapovalov called him 'Roger' referring to the tennis great Roger Federer.
"I am not playing vs Kokkinakis. I am playing against Roger (Federer). Just kidding. We call Kokki ‘Roger’ because he just plays so great here. He is jet lagged and doesn’t know where he is but plays unbelievable."
Kokkinakis was indeed playing like Federer, beating all of his opponents, Shapovalov, Ugo Humbert, and Dominic Thiem. He was able to keep that level also in the semi-final against Shelton, but unfortunately for him, only for two quarters.
After being 0-2 down, Shelton mounted an inspired comeback, winning the match 9-15, 9-12, 15-13, 12-11, and 2-0 to reach the final of the tournament, in which he took on Humbert, who outplayed Musetti in the other semi-final, 11-16, 16-10, 15-13, and 15-13.
Shelton had to recover a one-quarter deficit again, but he could do it once more to win the final match 10-19, 18-8, 15-11, and 19-11 while hitting some spectacular around-the-net shots to win the 2024 Ultimate Tennis Showdown in Frankfurt.
After the match, he admitted that he wasn't feeling well during his semi-final match, but he progressively found his level, and in the final, he felt like everything was falling into the court, including three around-the-net shots in one match.
"I don’t know if I’ve ever seen them like that either. I was pretty locked in, I just closed my eyes and swung. I guess today, I had it."
"I was pretty upset on court this morning (in his semi-final). I don’t know what came over me. I was just focusing on trying to have a lot of fun, hitting some hot shots. I think at the core of it, that’s what UTS is about, it’s for the crowd."
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