Ben Shelton has crashed out of Wimbledon after suffering a shock five-set loss to a Finnish qualifier currently ranked 140th in the world.
Shelton, who is the first top 10 player to lose in this year’s tournament, failed to convert 11 out of 12 break point opportunities and had a match point in the decisive tiebreaker before losing 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(8), 6-2, 7-6(11-9) to Otto Virtanen. A 25-year-old Finn who had only won two Grand Slam main draw matches coming into the clash.
The loss is a bitter blow for Shelton after an encouraging build-up to Wimbledon. He won the Stuttgart Open and then reached the quarter-finals in Halle. It is his earliest exit from a major event since the 2023 French Open.
“One of the toughest losses I’ve taken, for sure,” Shelton told reporters afterwards.
“I got to give a lot of credit to the guy I played. I thought he played an outstanding match.
“I feel like it was an uphill battle all day. I was pretty off on my serve spot, so I wasn’t getting many free points. I was having to grind through a lot of the games. The guy was playing really good and downhill from the baseline.”
Shelton exits SW19 with mixed emotions after not being entirely disappointed with his performance. He is the first top-five player to have been beaten by Virtanen on the Tour.
“I came in playing really good tennis,” he reflected.
“I didn’t even think I played a poor match. Things just didn’t go my way. But I’m going to treat this as any other tournament that finishes, and I’ll be right back on the practice courts in a couple of days.”
Taking into account all Grand Slams and Masters 1000 events that have taken place so far in 2026, Shelton has only reached the quarter-finals at one of those. On the other hand, he has also won two ATP 500s and one 250 during what has been a mixed year.
Virtanen will next play Great Britain’s Arhut Fery.
