Ben Shelton insists there are positives from his surprise defeat at the ASB Classic on Wednesday.
The American top seed battled on the court for over two hours before losing 7-6(2), 4-6, 7-5, to Jakub Mensik. A 19-year-old Czech who has become the youngest player to reach the last eight in Auckland since Rafael Nadal in 2004. There were just two breaks of serves in the entire match with Sheldon’s only break occurring in the final game.
It is the first time Shelton has lost his opening match at a tournament since July when he was beaten by China’s Juncheng Shang in Atlanta. He now has a losing 3-10 record against players younger than him on the ATP Tour. Nevertheless, the world No.21 is staying positive ahead of next week’s Australian Open where he reached the quarter-finals in 2023 and the third round 12 months later.
“I thought I played a good match, I thought he played a better match,” Shelton told reporters in New Zealand.
“He came up with what he needed in the big moments.
“I played a bad tiebreaker in the first set and lost a few break point chances that could have made it a straight set match.
“But from then on, I like the way that I battled. I’ve not once on the ATP tour, started the year with a win, so it doesn’t worry me too much. Out of my three (years), this is probably the best I played.
“I thought I served clutch down the stretch, I thought I returned well against a guy who was hitting lines at over 220km/h every single time, and that radar gun’s broken, he was serving faster.
“So I’m obviously real disappointed that I wasn’t able to get it done. But it is what it is.”
This years tournament has been affected by withdrawals and upsets in the draw. Portugal’s Nuno Borges and America’s Alex Michelsen are the only seeded players to have made it through to the quarter-finals. Borges is the next player Mensik faces.
“It was a tough match, especially mentally, so many chances to break him,” world No.49 Mensik said of his latest performance.
“We played three sets, 7-6 4-6 and 6-5, and I didn’t break him. So fortunately, it happened in the last game.
“So I’m happy that I kept my focus, kept believing and it was the key for today.”
The winner of this year’s tournament will earn $103,455 in prize money.
