A solid 2025 season officially came to an end for Ben Shelton with his straight-sets loss to Jannik Sinner on Friday at the ATP Finals. Shelton’s work? Well, it’s still in progress.
The American talked about the improvements he wants to make in the future, and said that based on prior experience, it takes time to see dramatic changes.
“I think tennis is a sport where you don’t get instant gratification,” the 23-year-old southpaw told reporters on Friday after falling to Sinner, 6-3, 7-6(3).
“It’s always been like that in my career. I set a goal, start working on it every day. It doesn’t come to me right away. It’s frustrating. Sure enough, down the line, as long as I continue to put consistent work in every single day, which has never really been a problem for me, I see those things start to work and start to come alive in my matches.”
When he looks back at his body of work, Shelton will no doubt be disappointed in the fact that his current record against the ATP’s Top 3 stands at 0-16. But its still early days in his career, and his development, as far as Shelton is concerned. He’s never been one to back down from a challenge.
“I’m always trying to chase the people in front of me. How I can get better? How I can be more effective? Also not losing sight of what makes me great and not trying to change too much,” he said.
Shelton says that the laundry list of improvements he wants to make in his game is large, as is his energy to tackle the challenge.
“[It was] certainly eye-opening being able to play against some of the best players in the world on the things that I need to do better,” he said. “I’m not the player that I want to be yet. Not close. There’s so many things that I need to work on.”
Shelton finishes his season with 40 wins and 24 losses. He won his biggest career title in Toronto this year, and also reached the semifinals at the Australian Open. This week he made hit Top 5 debut, but is now down to No.9 in the live rankings after Friday’s loss.
Sidelined by a shoulder injury after the US Open, the former Florida Gator missed out on a chance to finish the Grand Slam season on his terms.
“You can look at it two ways: either I was out for a month and a half with an injury or I got a month-and-a-half break,” he said. “Now, when I go home, it’s not like I need time to decompress and not play for a while before I start training. I can get right back into it.”
For Shelton, who has less than 200 career matches under his belt, the experience gained will surely help him as he looks to become a fixture inside the ATP’s Top 10 and maybe even Top 5 in the years to come.
