THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 7, 2024

Ben Shelton

Press Conference

J. SINNER/B. Shelton

6-2, 6-4, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What are your thoughts about what the differences were in this match from your perspective?

BEN SHELTON: I don't really...

Q. What do you think the difference was today that he was able to beat you?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I thought I came out slow start, a little bit flat. I thought he came out hot and got on top of me the first set and a half, and then I really started to hit my stride, figure things out from a set and a break down. Had a few small chances I thought to get myself back in the second set.

I honestly thought I played a great third set. I was fighting hard and, you know, competing as well as I could. Yeah, I mean, it came down to the wire.

Who knows what happens if I don't hit the net tape on that one serve that I hit on set point or didn't miss one of those forehands by four inches.

Yeah, unfortunately, I wasn't able to bring it back in that third set, but I think, yeah, the first half of the match was just a big difference in level that sucks that it happened, but it happened.

Q. What toll do you think the last few days have played on you, if any, for this match?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I mean, whenever you're on the schedule seven days straight, it's not something easy to deal with. I think five of those days I was -- five or six of those days I was actually on a court playing. Maybe six.

So it's not an easy thing to deal with, but I signed up for it. I signed up to play doubles yesterday. Played two extra sets after my singles match, and that's my decision.

I think a lot of people probably would have pulled out of doubles in that situation, but I didn't want to do that to my partner. He's been waiting around for four, four and a half days to play doubles with me. I'm not just going to pull out on the guy. I think it's a selfish thing to do. Just kind of wasn't raised that way.

I'm happy with the way that I've played so far this week, the way that I've competed. I was tough through a lot of difficult situations. Yeah, I will just try to continue moving forward.

Q. Like you said, on your third set that you felt like you could have probably even won that one. Throughout the tournament one thing that I noticed is that whenever you're under pressure, you just level up like crazy. Is that something that you feel that really pushes you and motivates you to play better?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I think it's something that I have to continue to improve is having that level and that energy and drive from point one and in the noncritical points in the set, the 1-All or the 2-1. I think whenever it's 5-4 or 6-5, 6-All in a breaker, sometimes I get tight and nervous, like everybody else does, but usually that's when I play my best tennis.

So I think it's important for me to continue working on focusing better throughout the match.

Q. I know you have been asked this many times, but now that your singles games are over, how did you feel playing both surfaces, clay and grass? Which one did you actually enjoy playing this year so far?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I enjoy both of them. I think that there's great things about playing on both surfaces. I really enjoy playing on grass. I think it's also the toughest surface on the body. A lot of guys have gone down in the last two weeks ... sorry... in the last four weeks. Pulled out, serious injuries. You see guys limping off the court, hobbling off the court.

I wasn't sure if I was going to play my first round. I took a bad fall the day before my first match. So, you know, grass court can be dangerous.

Grigor pulled out first set today. Round of 16 of a slam, you don't pull out unless it's something pretty serious.

So I've really enjoyed playing on grass. It's beat up my body. I'm looking forward to finishing out the doubles here and then moving on back to the U.S. for the hard courts.

Yeah, I think both seasons were great for my development this year.

Q. What do you come away from facing Jannik here, thinking about him and his being the No. 1 in the world, still in the tournament, of course, and trying for his first title here?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I think he has great chances. He's playing with a lot of confidence right now. He's playing great tennis.

I told his coach after the match, the first two sets maybe I was a little slow, but it seemed like the ball was moving so fast, I wasn't even seeing it.

I think he's playing attacking tennis right now. His serve plus ones are really effective. He's returning well, moving great on the surface. I don't know how he slides the way that he does and he doesn't get injured.

So, yeah, I think that he has great chances moving forward, but it only gets -- each match gets tougher from here. You know, more tennis on your body. It's not like the opponents get any easier.

I'll be looking forward to watching the results for the rest of the tournament. I probably won't be watching it on TV. I'm not really like a -- I don't really watch the rest of the tournaments on TV after I'm out, but I'll be looking to see what happens.

Q. This is in no way a second guess, but can you just take us through your thinking in terms of playing the doubles and going through that after 15 sets of tennis? Like I said, I want to be clear, I'm just curious about how you were feeling and how you came to that decision.

BEN SHELTON: I definitely wouldn't go back on it. I wouldn't pull out. I think that it's a lot more important who you are and how you treat the people around you, how you treat your friends. And I'm playing with somebody who is a friend, who waited four days for me to play doubles together. I'm not just going to pull out on him last second.

I made the commitment to sign up for the tournament, so I think that it was important for me that I saw it through. Maybe in the future at certain tournaments I won't sign up for the doubles, but if I sign up, I'm not going to pull out.

Q. Did anyone on your team say, Are you sure you want to do this, or try to talk you out it of it?

BEN SHELTON: That's between me and my team.

Q. Fair enough.

Q. Just wondering what you thought you could have done better today, or do you just think Jannik just served, just returned really well and made it really hard for you?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I think I said before you came in I thought I came out slow, and my feet weren't firing the way that I wanted them to. I was losing a lot of the baseline rallies.

By the time I got halfway through the second set and then into the third set that started to flip, and a lot of the long rallies I was starting to win. I was feeling good, moving, playing points comfortable out there on the court.

That third set came down to half an inch here, half an inch there. I had four set points. One on my serve. The other three were all on my racquet. So I think that there's a lot of positives to take away, but it's a sport of small margins.