Tommy Paul Talks Of Attempts To Take Shelton Out Of Rhythm During US Open Defeat
ATP
Tommy Paul crashed out of the US Open last night, but later talked about attempting to drive Ben Shelton out of his serving rhythm throughout the loss.
Paul has had a very successful year on the ATP Tour and is finally showing some of the obvious promise he showed as a junior. Paul grew up as a clay court specialist, but has since improved his results on the quicker hard courts, and overall he looks like a very versatile competitor with strengths that he taps into consistently.
The problem for Paul in his fourth-round defeat to Ben Shelton was that he was facing someone who was unbelievably tough to contain. Shelton seemed to possess the stronger serve, hitting his spots and targets so well, and Shelton is not afraid to play close to the lines when he has time on his lefty forehand to really dominate the vast majority of points.
Paul perhaps is not used to having that little control of baseline exchanges, and lost the race to the forecourt in spells of the defeat too, but Paul still felt like he tried everything to really disrupt Shelton.
Paul talked through some of the controversial antics he tried, that may work against some other opponents, but could not quite make a difference to the way that Shelton was serving on the day.
"Well, you want to get them out of the rhythm but you don't want to be, like, disrespectful in any way. I try and be like overly respectful. Maybe it will get him out of his rhythm. Like on changeovers, like, Dude you're serving great day, that sort of thing. Hit him with a couple of those today, but he had no reaction to it. It wasn't really working."
A decent example of a player trying their utmost to distract and put off their opponent is some moments from Iga Swiatek in the women's game. Swiatek caused controversy for waving her arms in the air when an opponent had a routine passing shot to make at the net. Many people involved in tennis feel it takes the game into a bad light, but others respect the fact a player would do absolutely everything to win at all costs. Paul is no different and maybe in other instances it might work out for him.
