Flashback: Ben Shelton’s Slam breakthrough vs. Zheng

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As Zheng Zhizhen is having his way with Ben Shelton in the third round of the Italian Open, let’s flash back to Jan. 2023.

Ben Shelton, already ranked inside the top 100 but basically out of the country for almost the first time in his life, makes his Grand Slam main-draw debut at the Australian Open.

It’s late at night, and about as far from Rod Laver Arena as you can get. But somehow a bunch of fans found their way to Court 14 to see this first-round matchup between a pair of previously not-well-known, newly-minted top 100 players.

It was a … tussle between two players, each with their own brand of charisma.

And it was full of atmosphere. Zheng had plenty of Chinese fans in his corner.

It was only Zheng’s third Grand Slam main-draw match, the first where he didn’t have to go through qualifying. He lost the first two in five sets. And he lost this one in five sets as well.

And it was only Shelton’s second, after a wild card in the previous year’s US Open and a five-set loss to Nuno Borges.

***Shelton’s pals did whatever they could to get over the line – including the infamous Gator chomp from his alma mater, the University of Florida.***

Shelton managed to turn Court 14 into an Aussie version of “The Swamp”, which is where his University of Florida Gators played.

There looked to be some college dudes there. And also some Aussie mates who became Gator Nation, if only for the occasion.

He’d make a great shot, then roll down the fence giving them low fives.

In the end, Shelton won it – 10-4 in the fifth-set match tiebreak.

He then went on to beat Nicolas Jarry, Alexei Popyrin and J.J. Wolf (in five sets) before going down to countryman Tommy Paul in a well-contested four-set quarterfinal in which he finally hit the wall.

When he left Australia, Shelton was in the top 50.