Ben Shelton and Zhizhen Zhang will fight against each other in the 3rd round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia for the 2nd time in their career. They are scheduled to compete on Sunday at 8:00 pm on GRAND STAND ARENA. In this post, we analyze their head to head performance and prediction.

Prediction, odds and live streaming

The pick for Tennis Tonic is Ben Shelton who should win in 2 sets.

As per the initial odds, Ben Shelton is the pick to win this match.
Ben Shelton -> 1.43
Zhizhen Zhang -> 2.84

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Prediction and head to head Ben Shelton vs. Zhizhen Zhang

This will be the 2nd time that Ben Shelton and Zhizhen Zhang fight against each other. The head to head is 1-0 for Shelton (see full H2H stats), but they have never played each other on clay.

The last time that they played, Shelton won 4-6 6-3 6-2 2-6 7-6(4) in the 1st round in at the Australian Open back in 2023.

Highlights Ben Shelton vs Zhizhen Zhang – Australian Open 17-January-2023

Ben Shelton

Ben Shelton

17 - 8win/loss

Hard
9-6
I Hard
2-1
Clay
6-1
Rank
21
High
13
LLWLWWWWLW
See allSTATS
Year Total Hard Clay I.hard Grass Carpet
2024 42-26 22-13 8-4 8-5 4-4 0-0
2023 28-26 21-13 4-8 1-2 2-3 0-0
2022 40-11 16-9 0-0 24-2 0-0 0-0
2021 18-7 7-3 5-2 6-2 0-0 0-0
See all years

Ranked no. 14 (career-high), the American reached the 3rd round after beating Pavel Kotov 4-6 6-3 6-4.

In the 2nd round against Kotov, The American recovered from a 1-set down deficit before winning (4-6 6-3 6-4). During the match, Shelton scored 95 points vs Kotov’s 78. The American was very aggressive to blast 36 winners.

Talking about the service games, Shelton blasted 2 aces and he committed only 4 double faults. Overall, Ben Shelton was very efficient on serve to win 78% (36/46) of his 1st serve and 76% (25/33) on the second serve. However, this didn’t prevent his to concede the serve once. Ben broke Kotov twice after converting 29% of his break points (2/7).

Shelton has a solid match record in the last 4 years having won 66% of his matches (103-52). 6-1 on clay in 2024. Talking about his performance on the same surface of this tournament, Shelton has an overall15-11 win-loss record in the last 4 years on clay.

His best result of the current year was winning the title in Houston where he defeated Frances Tiafoe in the final 7-5 4-6 6-3.

Shelton has an aggregate 17-8 win-loss record in 2024, 6-1 on clay (See FULL STATS).

Previously in Rome

Rome
Shelton's Record

Zhizhen Zhang

Zhizhen Zhang

9 - 12win/loss

Hard
4-7
I Hard
2-2
Clay
3-3
Rank
45
High
31
LLLLLLWWWW
See allSTATS
Year Total Hard Clay I.hard Grass Carpet
2024 24-28 9-12 9-7 2-5 4-4 0-0
2023 30-29 12-13 15-10 1-2 2-4 0-0
2022 52-28 11-5 31-11 9-11 1-1 0-0
2021 15-12 1-1 9-6 0-1 5-4 0-0
2020 1-6 1-6 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0
See all years

Ranked no. 56, Zhang reached the 3rd round after beating Daniel Elahi Galan 6-2 7-5 and Adrian Mannarino 6-1 6-3.

In the 2nd round, Zhang had a good straight sets win against Mannarino (6-1 6-3). During the match Zhang scored 59 points vs Mannarino’s 35. Zhizhen was quite aggressive to blast 24 winners.

About the serving games, Zhang managed to score 4 aces and he committed only 2 double faults. Zhizhen Zhang was pretty efficient on serve to win 80% (24/30) of his 1st serve and 58% (11/19) on the second serve. This was the main reason for not conceding a single break during the match. The Chinese was clinical in his return game without wasting any break point and break Mannarino 4 times.

Overall Performance in this tournament

The Chinese hasn’t dropped yet a set in the tournament to win 58% of the points he played.

The Chinese has a composed 9-12 win-loss record in 2024, 3-3 on clay (See FULL STATS).

Previously in Rome

Previously, his best result was reaching the qualifications in 2023. See his history.

Rome
Zhang's Record

H2H Performance in the tournament (main draw)

B.Shelton
Z.Zhang
2h:38
2h:38
Time on court​
2h:54
2h:54
!
2h:38
2h:38
Last match​
1h:11
1h:11
1
1
Match played
!
2
2
29
29
Games Played​
36
36
3
3
Set played​​
4
4
95
95
Total points​
131
131
95
95
Avg point​
65.5
65.5
36
36
Winners
52
52
36
36
Avg Winners​
26
26
38%
38%
Ratio winners
40%
40%
-- Serve --
2
2
Aces
7
7
2
2
Avg Aces
3.5
3.5
4
4
Double Faults
4
4
4
4
Avg Double Faults
2
2
36/46
36/46
1st won total​
52/73
52/73
!
78%
78%
1st won %
!
71%
71%
25/33
25/33
2nd won total​
28/49
28/49
!
76%
76%
2nd won %
57%
57%
-- Break Points --
2/7
2/7
BP won
9/12
9/12
2/7
2/7
Avg BP won
4.5/6
4.5/6
!
29%
29%
Won
!
75%
75%
2
2
Conceded
13
13
2
2
Avg Conceded
6.5
6.5
1
1
Broken
2
2
1
1
Avg Broken
1
1
1
1
Saved
11
11
See Allstats

Matches, sets, games and points

Points Shelton Zhang
Match played 1 2
Tot Set 3 4
Tot Games 29 36
Pts 95-78 131-93
Total Points 173 224
Winners 36 52
%Winners 38% 40%

Shelton played 1 match while Zhang competed in 2 matches. At the moment, Ben Shelton dropped 1 set while Zhizhen Zhang hasn’t lost a set so far. Shelton has played 1 set(s) less than Zhang (3 vs 4). Therefore, Shelton played 7 games less than Zhang. Shelton scored 36 winners (38% of the total points). On the other side, Zhizhen recorded 52 winners (40%).

Serve Performance

Serve Shelton Zhang
Aces 2 7
Avg per match 2 3.5
1st in 46/79 73/122
%1st in 58% 60%
1st pts 36/46 52/73
%1st pts 78% 71%
2nd pts 25/33 28/49
%2nd pts 76% 57%

Shelton scored 2 aces . Zhang fired 7 aces (3.5 per match). Shelton won 78% points behind his first serve. He very solid his second serve to win 76% of the points. On the other side, Zhang won 71% of the points on his first serve. He had a solid display on his second serve to win 57% of the points.

How they played the important points

Breaks Shelton Zhang
Won 2 9
Converted 2/7 9/12
% Converted 29% 75%
Conceded 2 13
Saved 1 11
% Saved 50% 85%
Times Broken 1 2

The American broke his opponent twice with a 29% conversion rate. Shelton surrendered his serve once and he saved 50% of the break points that he conceded. Zhizhen broke his opponents 9 times with a 75% conversion rate. The Chinese conceded his serve twice and he saved 85% of the break points that he conceded.

Shelton
R2
Kotov		 Total
Score 4-6 6-3 6-4
Tot Set 3 3
Tot Games 29 29
pts 95-78 95-78
Total points 173 173
Winners 36 36
%Winners 38% 38%
SERVE
Aces 2 2
Double Faults 4 4
1st in 46/79 46/79
% 1st in 58% 58%
1st pts 36/46 36/46
% 1st pts 78% 78%
2nd pts 25/33 25/33
% 2nd pts 76% 76%
Breaks
Won 2 2
Converted 2/7 2/7
Converted % 29% 29%
Conceded 2 2
Saved 1/2 1
Saved % 50% 50%
Times Broken 1 1
Zhang
R1
Elahi Galan Riveros		 R2
Mannarino		 Total
Score 6-2 7-5 6-1 6-3
Tot Set 2 2 4
Tot Games 20 16 36
pts 72-58 59-35 131-93
Total points 130 94 224
Winners 28 24 52
%Winners 39% 41% 40%
SERVE
Aces 3 4 7
Double Faults 2 2 4
1st in 43/73 30/49 73/122
% 1st in 59% 61% 60%
1st pts 28/43 24/30 52/73
% 1st pts 65% 80% 71%
2nd pts 17/30 11/19 28/49
% 2nd pts 57% 58% 57%
Breaks
Won 5 4 9
Converted 5/8 4/4 9/12
Converted % 63% 100% 75%
Conceded 12 1 13
Saved 10/12 1/1 11
Saved % 83% 100% 183%
Times Broken 2 0 2

Tennis Scores in Rome

Upcoming matches in the draw

Shelton
More Stats
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Zhang

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