LONDON: Ben Shelton made an appearance on Court Two at Wimbledon on Friday, but it was an extremely brief visit.
The American 10th seed was on the verge of beating Australia’s Rinky Hijikata yesterday and was leading 6-2, 7-5, 5-4, before organisers decided to suspend play. Preventing Shelton having a chance to serve the match out at the time. The umpire explained that he received a five-minute warning that the electronic line-calling system would stop and didn’t want to continue the match in case it had to be halted halfway through a game.
“I’m just happy with the way I handled it coming out and taking care of my business,” Shelon said after.
“It’s never ideal mentally having to wake up another day and be on. I went out there prepared to play two and a half sets. You can’t just go out there and be like I’m going to hold. What happens if you don’t? That’s the tricky part, but all in all, I’m really happy with the win.”
Despite the inconvenience of having to come back another day to play the rest of his match, Shelton was in solid form when he resumed play and was on the court for just over a minute. He closed the match out by hitting an ace, an unreturned serve and then another two aces in the final game.
It is possible that in previous years, the world No.10 wouldn’t have been in such a situation with line judges making the calls instead. 2025 is the first time that an electronic system has been implemented throughout.
“I don’t think the Hawk-Eye system’s perfect. I think we’ve seen that at earlier tournaments in the year, players taking pictures of marks on the clay and stuff,” Shelton commented.
“In terms of the accuracy in a match, I feel like Hawk-Eye is probably a little bit better. There’s probably fewer mistakes using Hawk-Eye for the whole match.
“I think it’s tough sometimes to wrap your head around when the machine makes a mistake and there’s nothing you can do about it. The Hawk-Eye system is the same system we use with challenges. When you challenge, it could still not be accurate, as well.
“I don’t really know what the best option is in terms of line calling. But I do think that taking out the human error in line calling has probably helped in some matches.”
As for his current game, the 22-year-old believes his tactical adjustments recently made are paying off on the grass. Even though he experienced a poor run heading into Wimbledon, losing his opening matches at Queen’s and in Mallorca.
One particular area he is pleased with is his backhand. Although there is still room for improvement. Against Hijikata, he hit twice as many unforced errors as winners from his backhand side (10 against five).
“My backhand has improved a lot, especially my ability to deal with pace to the backhand, hitting low balls off the backhand, being able to put topspin on the backhand sometimes, and hit passing shots,” he explained.
“I think it’s part of my evolution. It’s not where I want to be yet. No shot in my game is really where I want it to be ultimately. It’s just a work in progress.
“I’m always out there competing, trying to figure out the answers. I would like every day to see my game evolving a little bit.”
Shelton will play Márton Fucsovics in the third round on Saturday.
