Ben Shelton (tennis)

Benjamin Todd Shelton (born October 9, 2002) is an American professional tennis player.

Shelton has a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 15 achieved on October 23, 2023.

He also has a career-high ATP doubles ranking of No. 80 achieved on August 21, 2023.

Shelton won the 2016 USTA junior national championship in doubles.

He played college tennis for the Florida Gators.

As a true freshman in 2021, he clinched the Gators’ first team national championship with his victory at fifth singles; the following year, he won the men's singles title at the 2022 NCAA Division I Tennis Championships.

That same year, he was named the ITA National Player of the Year.

He made his ATP Tour debut in July 2022 at the Atlanta Open where he defeated Ramkumar Ramanathan.

The next week, he played in the Cincinnati Masters reaching the third round highlighted by a win over world No. 5 Casper Ruud.

In August 2022, Shelton announced he would turn professional.

In January 2023, Shelton reached the quarterfinals of just his second Grand Slam, the 2023 Australian Open.

Later that year, he improved to reach the semi-finals of another major at the 2023 US Open, and would win his first title in Tokyo, an ATP 500 tournament.

Shelton is the son of former professional tennis player and Florida Gators men's tennis coach Bryan Shelton.

His mother, Lisa Witsken Shelton, was also a highly-ranked junior tennis player, and his uncle, Todd Witsken, was a professional tennis player.

His sister, Emma, played college tennis at Florida.

Shelton was born in Atlanta, Georgia, as his father was the then-coach of Georgia Tech's women's tennis team.

He currently lives in Gainesville, Florida and graduated from Buchholz High School.

As a child, Shelton did not want to play tennis and, instead, played football.

Despite both of his parents having connections to the game of tennis, they did not pressure him to play the sport.

At age 12, Shelton began playing tennis regularly and was coached by his father, Bryan, who at the time was a college tennis coach.

When Shelton turned 16, he considered playing ITF Junior tournaments abroad, but his father urged him not to do so saying: "Why do you need to travel abroad when you're not the best [player in the U.S.]?"

Shelton ultimately credits his father's advice not to play ITF Junior tournaments abroad as helping his tennis development because he was not constantly traveling and instead had a routine.

Shelton peaked at a high of the No. 3 player in the USTA Boys’ 18s division and No. 306 ITF Junior.

He was a finalist at the 2020 USTA Boys 18s Singles Winter Nationals and won the 2019 USTA Boys 16s Doubles Clay Court tournament.

In June 2020, on Father's Day, Shelton committed to play collegiate tennis for the Florida Gators, under his father, head coach Bryan Shelton.

A finance major, Shelton mostly played No. 5 singles as a freshman in 2020–21 and had an overall record of 28–5.

He helped the Gators win the Southeastern Conference (SEC) regular season title, and he won the championship-clinching match at the 2021 NCAA Championships, securing Florida's first national title.

In 2021–22, Shelton shone during his second year, going 37–5 in singles matches (including 14–2 in the No. 1 spot).

He won the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-American Championships in the fall without dropping a set.

He helped Florida defend their SEC title and win the SEC Tournament Championship.

At the end of the season, Shelton won the 2022 NCAA Singles Championship over August Holmgren and finished the season as the nation's top-ranked player.

He was named SEC Player of the Year and National Player of the Year.

Shelton was slated to return to Florida for his junior year in 2022–23 and said he wanted to complete his finance degree.

Shortly after his successful run at the 2022 Cincinnati Masters, Shelton announced he would forego his remaining college eligibility to turn professional and continue his college education online.

At the Georgia's Rome Challenger in July, Shelton reached his first Challenger final, losing to Wu Yibing.

The next week at the Indy Challenger, he reached the semi-finals, highlighted by a win over world No. 103 Tim van Rijthoven.

He made his ATP Tour debut at the Atlanta Open as a wildcard, and in the first round he defeated Ramkumar Ramanathan for his first ATP win.

He lost his next match to the No. 2 seed John Isner in three sets.

Shelton received a wildcard entry into the Cincinnati Masters.

In the first round, he defeated world No. 56 Lorenzo Sonego in three sets for his first win over a top-100 player.