Ben Shelton, an American tennis player, has at last made friends with the spectators. Shelton noticed a shift in the Foro Italico scene after enduring constant trolling from the fans. Shelton discussed his tense Indian Wells encounter against Francisco Cedrundolo and disclosed how things have turned around for him in Rome.
In an interview, Shelton discussed his most recent encounter at Foro Italico with Pavel Kotov in further detail. He appeared happy to notice that the audience’s reaction had changed from the previous year.
He expressed his thoughts about the crowd and said: “Yeah, I love the energy that I had. It felt like a football match; honestly, they support tennis here in Europe. They love tennis. And yeah, you feel like you’re in a stadium and you’re playing for your country or something, even though, you know, most of my fans in the crowd today were Italian, but yeah, I felt like a lot of support.”
Shelton’s speech demonstrated how a player might be inspired to perform well on the court by the response of the audience. During the second round of the Italian Open last year, he was subjected to a lot of shouts from the crowd while his opponent, Alexander Bublik, was showered with applause. Shelton did note how things changed this year after seeing a lot of Italian supporters cheering for him throughout the game. So Shelton’s excitement enabled him to advance to the third round of the circuit.
Shelton added: “I think it’s something that grows while you play, and the longer you’re on tour dealing with different things—crowds, people—you’re playing the things that they bring to the table that make things difficult. You know, I’ve played Bublik here. Last year, when I was on the other end of it, the crowd was booing me and chanting for him, and I was on the opposite end of the boos this year, in this match.”
Shelton in Rome, ranking, and results in 2024
Now ranked no.14 (career-high), Ben has managed to achieve an overall 17-8 win-loss record in 2024. The American is playing in Rome where he beat the world no.63 Pavel Kotov 4-6 6-3 6-4.
Ben Shelton will come up against the world no.56 Zhizhen Zhang in the 3rd round. The head to head is 1-0 for Shelton.
Shelton has won 1 title in 2024 in Houston.
Shelton is scheduled to play next in Geneva (Gonet Geneva Open). He will start to play the tournament from the main draw that will commence on the 19th of May.
