WATCH: Shelton listens to advice from Paul's box and takes advantage of it
ATP
Ben Shelton "cheated" a little bit in his quarter-final match against Tommy Paul at the 2023 Australian Open.
Shelton and Paul are good friends and that showed in their quarter-final match at the 2023 Australian Open. Whoever would win the match would become the first semi-finalist in Melbourne since Andy Roddick in 2009.
Just playing in the quarter-finals was a great achievement for both, but naturally, they wanted to make it at least one step further. Early in the match, the more experienced Paul was the better player.
He won the first set in a very close tie-break 8-6. In the second set, Paul broke Shelton's serve and won it 6-3 to establish a 2-0 lead. In the third set, it seemed that the older American would easily win this match in three sets, but Shelton started a comeback.
After being broken, he broke back and won the third set 7-5. But the youngster was in trouble again at the start of the fourth set. He was broken immediately in the first game, and down 1-3, he faced another break point.
Shelton was about to serve down 30-40 when Paul turned to advice from his coach, Brad Stine. Shelton hit 24 aces in the match, so Paul seemed to be clueless on many of his opponent's serves.
His coach indicated him with his hands to cover the "T," so the middle of the court. Shelton then hit a serve out wide, hitting an ace, and immediately told his team: "Brad said T."
It was clear that Shelton saw Stine's advice, but it still didn't help him to win the match, as Paul triumphed 7-6(6), 6-3, 5-7, 6-4. After the match, Paul spoke also about this moment.
"I asked him, I had trouble all day on break points, big points, with Ben, he was serving really well. I didn't know where to lean. So finally I went to my coach, and I went like 'where am I going'. He was like 'what?', I was like, 'where am I going?' And I think that when I said it, Ben heard it, he [coach] screamed T, and then I covered T and then he went wide."
