Shelton: Where there's smoke, there's firepower

Ben Shelton’s ‘towel swing’ is the latest addition to his arsenal of powerful weapons.

The left-handed American boasts one of the most lethal serves in the sport, and he put that overhead strength to good use Friday at the beginning of his Swiss Indoors Basel quarter-final with Andrey Rublev.

As a lingering haze from the smoke machine – used to add dramatic effect to player walk-ons – failed to clear from above the court, Shelton took matters into his own hands ahead of his first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with the World No. 7.

"What do you think if we started waving the towels like this," Shelton asked chair umpire Arnaud Gabas with a smile.

To the delight of fans, Shelton took his towel and began fanning the smoke in a double-handed overhead motion, drawing an ear-to-ear grin from Rublev and generous applause from fans, including Roger Federer’s parents Robert and Lynette, who were in attendance.

World feed commentator Robbie Koenig had fun with his play-by-play description of the moment.

"Consistency of the swing was nice. Keeping his head up and he moves the towel back and forward," said the South African "Transfers the weight through the arms into the towel. Maximum face of the towel towards the smoke."

The incident caused a seven-minute delay to the start of the match, which Shelton would go on to win 7-5, 6-7(3), 6-4.

Shelton, who is No. 20 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, fired 13 aces in the match, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

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