AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 14, 2025

Ben Shelton

Press Conference

B. SHELTON/B. Nakashima

7-6, 7-5, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What were you most pleased about with the way you played today?

BEN SHELTON: I liked the way I hit my forehand. I thought the way I moved to find forehands and hit my forehand, on the run I was accurate. I had a lot of shape on the ball. I thought that it was one of my better performances from my forehand standpoint.

I don't think that I did everything great today, but that was kind of one of the main things that got me a lot of free points or winners.

Q. In the deciding game, you ripped some pretty nice returns. I was curious, what are you thinking in a game like that? What's going through your head sort of in order to get the edge? Because obviously you want to win the match and the pressure is all on him.

BEN SHELTON: Yeah. You're just trying to apply pressure. For me, it's like you get to that point in the match, you don't want to be giving away free points because you know the guy is feeling the pressure.

I came up with some big shots, but I usually try to play a little bit more conservative early in the game in those moments, and once it gets to the big moment, I just trust myself and go for the shot.

I think that when I was looking at my stats and seeing that my return stats are improving, they're still not where I want them to be, but the rate that I convert on my breakpoints is very high on tour. It's right up there with the best returners in the world.

That's one thing that gives me a lot of confidence. I know if I can get to breakpoint, as good as anyone at executing and getting the break.

Q. Do you think that's because -- you probably might feel this when you are playing Mpetshi Perricard, when you are facing a break point, and the other guy has this bomb, you are feeling like, Okay, better not lose this because you might not get many looks against the other guy, and they might be thinking that? Do you sense that?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, maybe, maybe. I think it probably feels a little bit different playing him than playing me, but yeah, I think for the most part, guys probably do feel, once they get down a break in the set, it's not wrapped, but it's pretty tough to get back in it.

I think that I'm a great frontrunner. I think that whenever I do get a break, I feel pretty confident serving out sets, finishing sets out.

So for me, it's just important to be able to either get that early break or get a guy enough in the deep end to the end of the set to make them come up with something.

That's what I did today, even though I didn't do it in the way I wanted to in the first set. Kind of took the long route. I think for me it's really important to not panic early in sets if I don't get a break or it's even and knowing that 5-4, 5-All, 6-5, that's where I want to be.

Q. You mentioned the return numbers. Is that something you will seek out, your dad will come to you and say, Hey, look at these stats? Are there other numbers that interest you or that he will bring to you, or is it at this point that's a part of your game you're working on, and so you're studying those?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I think it's real interesting to see at the end of the year, because for me, just in one match, it's not very telling. You know, you can play, like you said, Mpetshi Perricard. Oh, man, I'm returning so bad. No. He aced you 36 times.

There's a lot of different circumstances. Speed of the court, conditions, sometimes it's real hot outside, and you are throwing in the towel in some of the return games just to get through it once you are up a break.

But at the end of the year I like to sit down, yeah, me and my dad and another guy that I work with, kind of look at the stats and see which areas I'm doing really well in and which areas I have room to improve in and which areas I have improved in.

For me, it's important that those good areas stay good, that my first-serve percentage stays where it's at, and my winning percentage on first and second serve stay where it's at. But I also need to get more accurate with my serves.

In almost every serve category I'm at the top, but my accuracy or how far I am from my targets is actually below the tour average. There's a lot of things that, I don't know how they calculate it, but they figured it out. It's stuff that I like to look at kind of when I'm wrapping up my year, but not things I dwell on during the season.

Q. I'm just wondering, is it often the case that you'll say, Gee, that's surprising, or does it send to kind of match up when you see a number in black and white, it will match up with kind of the way you thought in your head, or is it often different?

BEN SHELTON: For me, I think it's usually the same. I mean, there's a few things that kind of surprise me, like my clutchness on breakpoints or how much I convert on breakpoints, stuff like that. I think there's always stuff that you don't realize how good you are at, and there are probably also things you don't realize like, Oh, wow, I don't hit my spots as well as I like to.

Q. How are you feeling about the conditions here?

BEN SHELTON: I love them. For me it's warm. It's not hot. I feel like I can go all day. This is one of the warmest days that it's going to be here. There wasn't really ever a point in the match that I felt winded at all.

In my terms, we were having a lot of long rallies. In a Ben Shelton match, usually the rallies are a little shorter than what we were having today. That gives me a lot of confidence.

I know that I don't have to make any fitness-based decisions. I know that I can go the distance whenever I step out there on the court. If it's going to be five sets, it will be five sets. That's something that I don't take lightly and I take pride in.

For me, I'm feeling really good. I like the way that the court is playing in terms of the bounce. Obviously depending on where you play, everything is going to be different. You get an outside court, it's going to be lightning and the balls are going to be skidding. But you play on a stadium like this one today, and you kind of got to adjust to slow balls getting heavy. Last game before the ball changed they were pretty torn up.

Q. I know you're probably focused on yourself, but there was 17 Americans in action today and a bunch yesterday, the day before. Do you guys exchange messages? Is there anyone you're particularly close to on either the women's or the men's side of the draw?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I'm friends with most of them. Definitely close friends with Coco and Chris Eubanks. We've been watching pretty closely to see if Banks was going to get in on Lucky Loser. I think he was third, and one guy pulled out. I don't think he ended up getting in. Yeah, that was kind of one thing we were looking at.

Obviously I was watching Navarro-Stearns today, two college players. Yeah, that was absolute war. So for me I love to see where American tennis is at. I love watching Reilly Opelka. Him being back and playing great is cool to see.

There was probably too many American versus American first-round matches than I would have liked to see. Brooksby-Fritz and Ann Li playing Madison Keys, but it is what it is.