Jannik Sinner explains what he found ‘very tough’ to deal with against Ben Shelton at the Shanghai Masters
Jannik Sinner defeated the big-serving Ben Shelton in their Shanghai rematch to advance to the quarter-finals.
The world number one weathered a serving masterclass from birthday boy Ben Shelton in the fourth-round of the Shanghai Masters.
A year ago at this stage, the American stormed back to win in a third-set tiebreak.
However, Jannik Sinner was in no mood to have his Shanghai hopes crushed once again as he simply upped his level when needed.
The Italian broke at 4-4 in the opener to take the first set, before a powerful 7-1 win in the second-set tie-break squashed any hopes of a comeback.
Jannik Sinner of Italy reacts after a point in the Men’s singles fourth round match against Ben Shelton of the United States on Day 10 of 2024 Sha…
Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
Jannik Sinner admits ‘tough’ match due to incredible Ben Shelton serving
Quite remarkably, especially given Sinner’s ambitions to work in his return of serve, Shelton lost the first set despite missing just one first serve throughout.
With Shelton booming down his sliding lefty serve, Sinner quickly managed to get a good read on them.
Notching up four aces in the first set compared to Sinner’s two, Shelton landed 21/22 first serves losing just four.
However, Sinner’s patience was rewarded as he broke decisively to undermine Shelton’s central weapon.
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It was very tough. He played only first serves, except one second serve,” Sinner said to the ATP of Shelton’s opening set serving performance. “I tried to wait a little bit. Obviously playing against him, even if it’s a second serve, it’s very tough to return.
“But if I look the positive picture, how I ended the match, I tried to stay a bit more aggressive, which I’ve done, and this hopefully can give me confidence for the for the next round.”
Ben Shelton gets found out as the gulf between him and top five is exposed
Shelton was wonderful at the Laver Cup notching up a famous win over Daniil Medvedev. However, after a straight sets defeat to Carlos Alcaraz, followed by this one to Sinner, the gap he needs to bridge is
made all the more obvious.
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