Shelton reverses 'really rough’ start, surges into Cincy QFs

Ben Shelton earned his career-best 30th match win of the season and advanced to his second ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final Friday at the Cincinnati Open.

The 12th-seeded American made a rocky start, but leaned on his hefty first serve to dig him out of trouble and defeat Hungarian Fabian Marozsan 6-4, 6-3 amidst windy conditions. Shelton is set to face third seed Alexander Zverev in a blockbuster quarter-final.

“It was a really rough start of the match, pretty windy,” said Shelton, who committed 18 unforced errors to Marozsan’s 29. “It felt like every ball off his racquet was coming really, really fast. He was hitting some nukes and it took me a little while to speed up and adjust, but once I got rolling in the second set, I started to feel really confident.”

After the opening set featured three breaks of serve, Shelton lifted his aggression and drew on his home support. He dropped just two points behind his first delivery in the second set to advance after one hour, nine minutes and sealed the match with a net-cord winner, for which he apologised when embracing Marozsan at net.

The 21-year-old lefty, No. 14 in the PIF ATP Rankings, is the youngest American man to reach the Cincinnati quarters since 20-year-old Jared Donaldson in 2017. Shelton and Tiafoe are the lone Americans left in the draw as they aim to become the first American male to win Cincinnati since Andy Roddick in 2006.

Shelton’s quarter-final clash with Zverev will mark their first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.

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