AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 24, 2025

Ben Shelton

Press Conference

J. SINNER/B. Shelton

7-6, 6-2, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Ben, tough luck. What do you think made the difference in the first set? You were so close to taking it. Maybe it could have been a different story.

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, honestly really disappointed. You know going into the match that playing Jannik is a tough ask. For me, I've made my living on tour so far serving out sets and being able to serve out sets. Having two set points on my serve, serving at 6-5, I feel like uncharacteristic for me not to come through and win that.

Obviously you're playing the No. 1 player in the world, the chances, the windows are always small. Sometimes you miss your window, and the guy steps up his level, starts making a lot more first serves, playing better. The break chances don't come as often.

Thought I did some things well out there today. Yeah, I think I'll have to look at the statistics after the match. Probably one of my worst serving days in this tournament so far, which is disappointing, now being six matches into the tournament.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Jannik was saying on the court that you might have been struggling with your leg. How are you feeling physically during that match?

BEN SHELTON: Everyone has a little something. We're in the semis of a slam. We've played a lot of sets. I mean, he's definitely played the least amount of sets. I'm not sure how many he's dropped, but I didn't have any five-setters either.

Normal stuff. I get my leg worked on a little bit on the changeover. He gets his leg worked on a little bit on the changeover. It's not life-changing stuff. It's just part of the sport, stuff that you're dealing with late in the tournament.

Nothing to it.

Q. Are there ways in which his ability to return is different than maybe what you've faced earlier in the tournament? Does that make things tougher for you when you're serving and make you change the way you approach those games?

BEN SHELTON: I think a little bit. I think that he probably would say that he didn't hit his backhand return as well as he wanted to today. That was one place where I felt like I was getting some free points, even though I wasn't hitting great serves.

Certainly you're playing a great returner like him, you want to be more on it. You want to be more dialed into your spots.

I don't feel like I was pressing too hard today because he's a guy that handles pace pretty well. Usually he's pretty far back. The pace doesn't do as much.

My spot serving I thought just wasn't there tonight. Honestly, that's been one thing for me this whole tournament, I thought that I haven't served too great. I've been making up with my plus-ones, doing it with my forehand. I've honestly been breaking serve a lot. That was just one thing that outside of the Carreno Busta match that never clicked for me.

It's just something to keep going back and improving on. I thought that from the ground I played well. I thought I volleyed pretty well. I thought I returned well. I put myself in positions. I broke twice in the first, and I put myself in positions to break early in the second and the third, the second serve returns on break points or deep in a rally on a break point.

Like I said, sometimes those chances are gone. They don't come again. But that's the one thing for me that has to be better.

Q. You said the other day that this sort of match is an opportunity to sort of measure yourself against the best. I'm curious, first, what does it feel like to be out there against him and face that? What does it tell you about where you are and what you have to do to get where you want to go?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I know I'm close. I know my level's close. I know I have a lot of the stuff that I need. I certainly believe in myself. I just think that the reps against those guys, the consistency of playing those guys, playing a lot of matches in a week or a couple weeks, that will be the goal this year for me.

I think that those guys... Sinner, Alcaraz, Novak, the guys who have been dominating in the slams over the last two years - I mean, Novak, but you know what I mean. Since I've been on tour, the guys that have been dominating the slams. On their bad days they're still winning in three sets, winning in four sets. They figure it out.

I'm getting closer to being able to do that. Not having a good serving day or serving week and having a great tournament is a huge positive for me. It's like being able to recognize the flaws in what I did, in my game, against some of these guys, being able to go back to the drawing board. It gives me a lot of confidence.

I'm disappointed 'cause I wanted to see where this match ended up. I win that first set, and kind of get into the depths of it, deep in the fourth or the fifth, which should have been possible with where I was at in the first set, serving with set points.

Next time I'm out there with set points, I'm going to hit the ace (smiling).

Q. It seemed really apparent early on how much you relished those really key moments, the big points in the match. How did it feel for you playing in such a high-stakes match out there today?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, honestly it feels pretty normal to me. No more nerves than any other match at this tournament. I guess I'm surprised with how normal it does feel out there to me.

I'm happy that in the big moments or big atmospheres I don't panic. I just go out there and go to work and start playing. All that you can hope for this late in the tournament is to be in a great place mentally, your body still together physically, and just go out there and compete as hard as you can.

So for me, it's a work in process. A work in progress, sorry. I think that's something that I do handle well. I handle the big matches or the big moments well. As long as my tennis keeps improving, my fitness keeps improving, I like the spot that I'm going to be in for the rest of this year and moving forward in my career.

Q. Have you had any conversations with anyone at the tournament or on the broadcast side about your criticisms in your last press conference, your feedback?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, obviously I didn't do any on-court interview today (smiling).

But yeah, they were very, like, Well we're going to have some talks. I forget the guy's name who I talked to. But people have been understanding, supportive of what I said, I guess.

It's not like anything was just that, that bad - especially to me. It was just kind of the cumulative stacking up of incidences is kind of what I saw. Haven't seen anything since, so...

I don't know if you guys saw anything since, but I thought it's been pretty good the last two days, couple days.

Q. Did they seem receptive to the points you were raising?

BEN SHELTON: Maybe. I'm not sure. No one's really come up to me about it after that press conference, but...

Q. How are you looking forward? You are close to the top 10. You are in a good position. What are you looking forward for these goals for this season?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I just want to get better. I want to be able to be on the tennis court and feel like a complete player, that I have no limitations. I want to feel that I have a lot of options out on the tennis court. I want to continue to compete at the level that I'm competing at with the attitude and mindset that I have, which I think is great right now for me, helping me compete at the highest level I can.

Let's see what happens. Certainly not where I want to be. It's a positive two weeks, no doubt, and something that I can build on. I'm excited for the rest of the year, really excited. There's so many opportunities to compete. We got three more slams. I want to do some more damage than I've done on clay this year. Just keep seeing myself get better and better.

I think this is a great sport to see where your ceiling is, how good of a player that you can be and where that peak is. I'm just working, trying to find where that is.

Q. In the previous round when Jannik beat Alex, Alex said it was a terrible matchup for him, the most difficult person he could play. In some sense, do you feel your game style matches up pretty well against Jannik, if you can execute?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, yeah. I didn't execute perfectly today, but one of the good things about this matchup is that... I heard Andy Roddick talking about it, but the ball that he hits, he hits a massive ball obviously, but it's heavy. It has height over the net. It has shape. It's big, but it also bounces up.

For me, I'm a tall guy. I'm a better high-zone hitter. A lot of people do struggle with that ball that's a little higher in the zone coming fast. I don't mind it. I don't mind smacking a forehand off my back foot or hitting the backhand at shoulder height.

Other guys who have the shovel backhand that stays real low to the ground, it's a different ball. For me, sometimes tougher to deal with. I don't think many people would probably argue that Jannik is striking the ball the best in the world right now. Somehow that's very difficult to deal with. You get a good rhythm. He is hitting it clean off both sides, hitting it deep. There's a lot of pace on a lot of balls.

Yeah, for me I feel like I can bring out some of my best tennis at times. If I can cut out a few of those drops in level that I had, serve a little bit better, obviously close out that one game I didn't close out, then we see where we are.

It's motivating for me. I'm going to continue to work hard and build. I can't take this as a huge negative, right? Not many people have beat him in the last year.

I think since I beat him in Shanghai in 2023, maybe he's lost like six times. I'm going to continue focusing on myself every day, trying to improve, and hopefully I can next time that we match up at a slam give the fans a longer match to watch.