Latest / Bleacher Report / Ben Shelton Rallies Back to Win 1st Round vs. Lorenzo Sonego | Roland-Garros 2025

Transcript

Ben Shelton Rallies Back to Win 1st Round vs. Lorenzo Sonego | Roland-Garros 2025 · Bleacher Report

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: But now we're onto a food generation. The new two
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: is tomorrow, Jim. But this is what we just witnessed
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: on shot Tree and Shelton snig.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: What'd you see?
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: A great night match to get us going right? Highly competitive.
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: Here a rematch of a quarterfinal at the Australian Open
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: earlier this year, won by Shelton in four sets. Since then,
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: Sonigo has been living on Struggle Street, hasn't won many matches,
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: but he was here for it tonight and these slower
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: conditions were helping the Italian get into more rallies. He
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: was able to handle fin Serve a little bit better
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: than he would if it were a warmer day, so Sam,
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: for me, this is a great test for Ben Shelton
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: to kind of get his campaign going in this in
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: this tournament, and.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Shelton seems to play better the bigger the moment. He'd
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: probably love seeing his name on the night session of
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: the shot Crea to start things off. He wants to
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: be in the show. He seems like he plays his
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: best bet as at Majors and he came through to
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: night in five sets.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: A little bit worrying though that he had the foot
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: treatment at the end of the fourth set. We'll find
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: out more in the postmatch presser about what went down there,
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: but he was there for the fight and he is
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: on to the second.
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: Round and House.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: The way he played in the fifth gave me confidence
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: in that angle. But it's definitely something that we will see.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: It is a tough drawl for Shelton because we know
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: that Carlito is moving if fat for active as we
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: take a look. But this where the stats aces obviously
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: in Shelton's side, second serve points pretty even there. There
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: was a time where I was very worried about showing
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: with the unforced errors, but he overcame that before.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's his game style. He goes for it. He
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: wants to litter up that statuet. He wants a lot
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: of unforced are well, he doesn't want a lot of
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: unforced theirs, but he's okay with it as long as
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: he has a lot of winners to back it up.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: But the big stat as well, first served points one
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: seventy percent. That can maybe increase a little bit as
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: the tournament goes on. A guy with a servi as
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: big as him, he's gonna beat someone like a Carlos Alcoraz.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: That's going to be be the upport of eighty percent mark.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: He's got a tricky draw here though ld He's got
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: ccpos potentially in the third round before he would get
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: to Alcoraz. He's abous, hasn't been in his best form,
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: but still former finalists here, former finalists.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: On court and six tomorrow will not be a lot
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: of seats out there to watch Stepano sitsipas as as
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: a side court for a former finalist, but Alcarez on
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: the bottom, the favorite in this section to get through.
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: But there's still a quality win for Ben, a.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Quality win and a quality man. Doing the interview afterwards,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: John WORTHI caught up with Shelton post match.
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: Ben five set battle ending past midnight. How'd you get
• 2:26
  Speaker 5: it done? Yeah?
• 2:27
  Speaker 6: For me it was tough obviously playing the same guy
• 2:29
  Speaker 6: that I played quarterfinals in Australia and Open, a guy
• 2:32
  Speaker 6: who took me out in the first round here two
• 2:34
  Speaker 6: years ago, and uh yeah, it was a tough battle.
• 2:36
  Speaker 6: I had to dig deep. I think it's just one
• 2:39
  Speaker 6: of those matches that you got to be gritty and
• 2:41
  Speaker 6: then fight your way through. Five set. Tennis has its
• 2:43
  Speaker 6: highs and lows, and it's not usually a straight line,
• 2:46
  Speaker 6: So for me, it's it's really important to stay home
• 2:49
  Speaker 6: and stay in the moment. So you got a lot
• 2:51
  Speaker 6: of time to figure things out out there, and I
• 2:53
  Speaker 6: use it well tonight.
• 2:54
  Speaker 5: Here first time play the big House night match, and
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: you came on after that, moving raper. I'll tribute what
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: were you happier with tonight? You're tennis or you're managing
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: the occasion.
• 3:05
  Speaker 6: I think a combination of both. But managing the occasion
• 3:09
  Speaker 6: is definitely a big task at the Slams. I think
• 3:11
  Speaker 6: it's the most important part, regardless of how you're playing,
• 3:14
  Speaker 6: and being able to win when you don't have your
• 3:15
  Speaker 6: best stuff. Even though I liked a lot of what
• 3:18
  Speaker 6: I did out there tonight, is really important.
• 3:21
  Speaker 5: French opponent in the next round. I wonder to what
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: extent you draw on the college tennis experience when you
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: have a road game like.
• 3:26
  Speaker 6: This, Yeah, I love it. You get used to a
• 3:29
  Speaker 6: lot of people saying a lot of crazy things to you,
• 3:32
  Speaker 6: the jeers, the booze, whatever it is. I've played a
• 3:35
  Speaker 6: few French guys here, I've loved it. The atmosphere is
• 3:38
  Speaker 6: crazy and it's one of those battles that I always
• 3:41
  Speaker 6: look forward to.
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: Late night. You got two days off. Good looking around too.
• 3:44
  Speaker 6: Thanks.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Next up for Ben, it is going to be an
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Ugo either way, either Ugo Gaston or Ugo Blanchet Jim
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: at where he is in his development. What does tonight
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: mean for the growth of Ben's sheelf?
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: Well, I just think about when he started playing at
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: this tournament a few years back, and how he overcompensated
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: for the surface. He tried to adapt his game to
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: the surface and play more like a clay corner. He
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: was standing deeper on the returns. He was trying to
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: loop the forehand. What I like a couple of years
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: later is that he's playing like he always plays on
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: the other surfaces. He needs to make the surface bend
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: to his will, not the other way around. I love
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: seeing I love listening to Ben, super thoughtful guy and
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: his dad. I think he is doing a terrific job
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: steering him, and I love just generally speaking, the direction
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: is positive. He wants to be forceful. He's not waiting
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: for stuff to happen, He's making stuff happen.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Both of you said to me earlier today that first
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: match can be so tricky. There's so many nerves to
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: have it on the main stage. They were out there
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: eight hours earlier trying to work through I'm sure the
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: nerves and the play. What'd you think tonight?
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: I thought he Ben did a fantastic job handling the
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: occasion and his dad, Brian gave us such great insight
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: with his interview before saying, we had to get up
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: early to get some time on Chatrier.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: The French have given us.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: No time out here.
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: She knew it was important to get Ben comfortable on
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: that court, said, the more comfortable you are, the more
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: normal it becomes. And good first match from Ben. He
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: doesn't have a lot of experience playing on red clay.
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: He didn't play in the juniors, he didn't travel abroad,
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: so the last couple of seasons have really been his
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: first time over here learning to play on this surface.
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: He's getting better every season he's out here, and again
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: this was a tough draw. I think a really good
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: quality win for Ben will give him a lot of confidence.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: That was a tough draw too. I'd said kind of
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: a fifty to fifty before it started. That's kind of
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: what it was. Ben came out on top of Jim
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: said it best. He needs to play his style of game,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: whether it's a hard court, a clay court, a grass court.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: He can hit the serve one fifty. He's got one
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: of the biggest four hands in tennis. He's a shot maker,
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: and he went out there tonight and kind of put
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: those talents on display.