Ben Shelton is set to make his second appearance at Wimbledon, having experienced his first taste of the grass-court major last summer.
The 21-year-old American, who faces Italian qualifier Mattia Bellucci in the first round, caught up with ATPTour.com before this year’s event to discuss his early memories of watching The Championships, Wimbledon traditions, the stories of his dad Bryan Shelton playing at the major and much more…
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What is your first memory of watching Wimbledon?
The memory that’s clearest to me is probably the 2019 final between Novak and Roger. It was probably the first time I had the attention span to watch a five-set match. I’d say when I was younger, I probably wasn’t as interested in watching tennis or watching some tennis matches. But that final really grabbed me.
What are your first memories of playing Wimbledon?
I got an opportunity to practise for a week at Wimbledon before playing Queen’s last year. It was a great experience for me, seeing the site kind of empty. Then when I got back from playing the tournament in Mallorca, the site was full, the tournament was getting started, it was a completely different feel.
What were your early thoughts about the aura of the venue?
I always think it’s cool when you’re able to see two sides of the tournament. The more closed-off side, which feels exclusive, like no one else is there. I quite like that as well, the week before. You can walk around and it is chill and you really get to see the site.
Then when match day is there, you see the sea of people, ready and excited to watch the tennis. I think that is the coolest part for me and the buzz you get at Wimbledon is the best.
What is your favourite Wimbledon tradition and why?
I love the all-white clothing. I think it’s great when tournaments are unique and have their own thing. I think Wimbledon does a great job of that. Obviously, they’re the one Grand Slam that’s still on grass.
Three of the Grand Slams used to be on grass. Now two of them have gone away from it. We still have one Grass-Court major. The all-white makes Wimbledon unique and traditional and really in touch with our tennis ancestors. I really enjoy it.
Your dad, Bryan, reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 1994. Have you talked to him about that experience and seen any footage of him playing at Wimbledon?
I think it was really cool because there’s not a lot of tape that I’ve seen of my dad playing, but you can find a few of his matches for that year at Wimbledon. They are the matches that I’ve watched. Obviously he was playing at a really, really high level that week, so it was cool to kind of see some of his top-end tennis and speak to him about it after.
What is your favourite thing about playing on grass?
I think there are a lot of things to learn on grass. I didn’t start playing on grass until so late in my tennis development and kind of developing a game style having never played on grass before. There’s a bunch of things to learn and develop that have to do with movement, play style and things that I think that I’m learning and growing every single day. The journey just continues for me after a good start.
I think that it’s a surface where I could do really well and have some great success. But I haven’t done anything yet. I haven’t proved myself on the surface yet.
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