Novak Djokovic copied Ben Shelton’s ‘dialed-in’ phone celebration as a means to celebrate his victory in the US Open semifinal.
The majority of the tennis community and fans criticized Djokovic for this imitation after his celebration gesture. Novak Djokovic’s version of the Ben Shelton phone celebration was liked by Ben Shelton’s coach, Darren Cahill. Cahill expressed his thoughts about Djokovic’s act and said: “He’s like Kyrgios. You like Kyrgios, you hate him, I don’t care. On the tour, he brings something different & people will go out & buy a ticket, & watch these guys play. Ben brings real joy in what he’s doing on the court, he’s not scared, and he doesn’t care who he is playing.”
He further added: “I love him, I think the fact that Novak took him up a little bit for his celebrations was awesome. You can’t have robots on tour, you can’t have any personalities on tour.”
Novak Djokovic in 2023
At the moment ranked no.1, Djokovic played his last match on the 15th of September when he beat world no.25 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3 6-4 in the Rubber 2 of the Davis Cup (draw).
This season the Serbian owns a composed 46-5 record. Djokovic has won 5 titles in 2023 in Adelaide, Australian Open, French Open, Cincinnati and U.S. Open. The Serbian got to the final in Wimbledon.
Ben Shelton in 2023
Currently ranked no.
19 (career-high), Shelton played his last match on the 8th of September when he was overcome by world no.1 Novak Djokovic 6-3 6-2 7-6(4) in the semifinal of the U.S. Open (draw).Until now, during this year the American owns an overall 19-23 match record. Ben Shelton’s best performance of the year was reaching 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.
Novak Djokovic and Ben Shelton fought against each other just once. Their current record is 1-0 for Djokovic. When they played, Novak Djokovic won 6-3 6-2 7-6(4) in the semifinal in New York (U.S. Open) on the 8th of September 2023.
You can see them in action in the following highlights.