Ben Shelton is scheduled to compete for John McEnroe’s Team World in his Laver Cup debut in the Vancouver 2023 event. After ‘proving a few people wrong’ with his run to the US Open semifinals, Shelton is looking forward to the chance. The 20-year-old claimed that in order to prove that he ‘deserved’ his spot on the Laver Cup team, he wanted to perform well at the Grand Slam.
Ben Shelton says he is pumped to play in his first Laver Cup after having silenced his critics over his selection to Team World following his performance at the US Open. Shelton was defeated by ultimate champion Novak Djokovic in the semifinal of the US Open 2023.
Shelton said in an interview: “I’m really excited for the opportunity to play Laver Cup. You know, when the announcement first came out, I saw all these comments on Instagram, ‘Oh, oh, why did you take him? Why? Why this guy? There’s so many higher-ranked guys.”
He further stated his remarks about proving a few people wrong over his selection and said: “Coming into the US Open it was like, ‘OK, I really have something to prove’. I wanted to show people that maybe I deserved to be on the team or the people who said that I didn’t, kind of prove them wrong. I had a pretty good run here, and I’m happy that hopefully, I was able to prove a few people wrong. I’m pretty pumped to be in the team atmosphere.”
Next stop ➡️ Team World in Vancouver pic.twitter.com/LpBGBpoEaf
— Laver Cup (@LaverCup) September 9, 2023
Ben Shelton in 2023
At the moment ranked no.19 (career-high), Ben played his last match on the 8th of September when he lost to world no.1 Novak Djokovic 6-3 6-2 7-6(4) in the semifinal of the U.S. Open (draw).
This year the American achieved an overall 19-23 match record. Ben Shelton’s best achievement of the year was getting to the semifinal in the Cagliari Challenger and at the U.S. Open.
Shelton is expected to play next in Beijing (China Open). He is currently an alternate. The main draw will start on the 28th of September.
Ben Shelton |
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