Since 2017, the 21-year-old has been the youngest American in the Cincinnati quarterfinals. Ben Shelton won his 30th match of the season and advanced to his second ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinal on Friday at the Cincinnati Open.
The 12th-seeded American got off to a shaky start, but his powerful first serve helped him recover and overcome Hungarian Fabian Marozsan 6-4, 6-3 in windy conditions. Shelton will meet third seed Alexander Zverev in a thrilling quarter-final. “It was a really rough start of the match, pretty windy,” said Shelton, who made 18 unforced mistakes to Marozsan’s 29. “Every ball off his racquet felt like it was coming at lightning speed. He was hitting some nukes, which took me a bit
It took some time to speed up and adjust, but once I got going in the second set, I felt a lot more confident.” After three service breaks in the first set, Shelton increased his intensity and drew on his home crowd. He dropped only two points behind his opening delivery in the second set to lead after one hour and nine minutes, and he secured the victory with a net-cord winner, for which he apologised while embracing Marozsan at the net.
The 21-year-old lefty, ranked 14th in the PIF ATP Rankings, is the youngest American man to reach the Cincinnati quarterfinals since 20-year-old Jared Donaldson in 2017. Shelton and Tiafoe are the only Americans remaining in the draw, aiming to become the first American male to win.
Cincinnati since Andy Roddick in 2006.
Shelton’s quarterfinal match against Zverev will be their first Lexus ATP Head2Head showdown.
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