Ben Shelton part of growing crop of U.S. men

MELBOURNE, Australia– To get an idea of just how new the whole international pro tennis thing is to Ben Shelton, the 20-year-old NCAA champion from the University of Florida about to make his Australian Open debut, consider this: He says he is using a passport for the first time.

There’s more that is unfamiliar to him. The Gainesville-Atlanta-Los Angeles-Sydney-Adelaide itinerary of airplane rides late last month that brought Shelton on his initial trip outside of the United States as he played tune-up events before the first Grand Slam tournament of 2023. Going through customs. Trying different food. Riding in cars on the left side of the road.

And that’s to say nothing of the on-court learning curve, which Shelton will continue to navigate when he plays his first-round match at Melbourne Park against Zhang Zhizhen, a 26-year-old from China also never previously in the main draw there.

“It’s a completely different ballgame,” Shelton said in an interview with The Associated Press. “These are all a lot of experiences that I haven’t had yet. But I’m glad to be out here.”

It’s been said over and over and over again: No American man has won a Grand Slam singles title since Andy Roddick at the 2003 U.S. Open. Shelton is part of a group of players hoping to end that drought at some point, and while it still might take some time, breakthrough performances in 2022 by Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Fritz and Brandon Nakashima helped show countrymen what could be possible.

Tiafoe, a 24-year-old from Maryland, made it to the U.S. Open semifinals, the first man from the U.S. to get that far at Flushing Meadows since Roddick in 2006. Fritz, a 25-year-old from California, climbed into the top 10 and won his first Masters 1000 title by beating Rafael Nadal. Nakashima, a 21-year-old from California, won the Next Gen ATP Finals.

“It definitely gives us a lot of hope, a lot of encouragement. It’s cool to see those guys do amazing things. It’s something to look up to for me, for sure,” said Shelton, prone to flashing a wide smile while he speaks. “American tennis is definitely on the way up.”

A total of 13 Americans are in the ATP’s top 100, with Shelton checking in at a career-best No. 92 after turning pro last year.

“He’s a feisty competitor,” said Chris Eubanks, a 26-year-old from Georgia and friend of Shelton’s. “When things aren’t going well, he is still so confident and focused on deciding to just make it go well. It’s very rare. You’re going to hear some yelling. You’re going to hear `Vamos!’ You’re going to see fist pumps. Doesn’t matter what the score is.”

Shelton’s father, Bryan, a former pro who taught Ben the game and coaches at Florida, described it as “a football mentality” that derives from time dabbling in that sport, along with basketball and soccer, as a youngster. It wasn’t until Ben turned 11 that he zeroed in on tennis – because he wanted to travel to junior tournaments and stay in hotels like his sister, Emma, who now competes for Florida.

There are a tournament-high 14 U.S. players in the men’s bracket at the Australian Open, and the 17 in the women’s bracket also leads all countries. (Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Sloane Stephens and Sofia Kenin won major trophies in women’s singles for the United States over the past two decades.)

“The American men in their 20s, there’s a lot of guys that are having success and steadily climbing up the rankings. They push each other,” said Michael Russell, a former player who coaches Fritz. “Obviously I’m biased; I want Taylor to do the best, of course. But hopefully we’ll have an American man as a Grand Slam champion again soon.”

Shelton, who left Florida after his sophomore season and is taking online classes toward a degree in business, is OK with taking things one step at a time.

He is more interested in process-related goals than anything tied to rankings or results – even if he did soar 471 during 2022, which included a victory over French Open and U.S. Open runner-up Casper Ruud and three consecutive titles on the lower-level Challenger Tour.

“He’s had a lot of success, but there’s so much room for improvement,” Bryan Shelton said about his son. “He recognizes that.”

There weren’t as many surprises on the court for Ben as there were off it during his initial taste of life on tour.

“The way players take care of all the things – their body, how they eat, the way they warm up, the work they do in the gym each day,” Shelton said, “I’d say that was the interesting part for me. Seeing how much it takes to be at the level that these guys are at.”

MONACO — For the third year in a row, Novak Djokovic has been knocked out early at the Monte Carlo Masters.

Playing in only his second match on clay this season after a one-month pause, the top-ranked Serb lost 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 against Lorenzo Musetti.

Still adapting to the slow surface, Djokovic struggled with his movement, hit 46 unforced errors and could not find a solution to counter his Italian rival’s solid baseline shots.

“Well, (my) feeling is terrible after playing like this, honestly,” said Djokovic, who is expected to resume his preparations for the French Open next week at the Srpska Open in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

A two-time champion at Monte Carlo, Djokovic lost his opening match on the French Cote d’Azur last year and exited the tournament in the third round in 2021.

Djokovic got off to a strong start but lost control of the match in the second set, dropping his serve five times as both players struggled with accuracy in windy conditions.

Djokovic led 4-2 but could not hold onto his lead as Musetti’s mix of clever drop shots and deep groundstrokes put the 22-time Grand Slam winner on the back foot. Djokovic was broken at love in the 11th game and was furious at the changeover, stomping on his racket and destroying it.

Musetti kept his cool in the next game to serve out the set and force a decider.

The match was suspended by rain for about an hour with the score 6-4, 5-7, 1-1 and Djokovic up 40-30 on his serve. Musetti broke for a 4-3 lead and concluded on his fourth match point.

“I am struggling not to cry,” Musetti said. “It is an emotional win because it was a really long match. Three-hour match and suspended by rain. It was not easy conditions because it was a little bit windy and cold. Not like we used to play in the recent days. I am really proud of myself and I can see on the screen. I am struggling not to cry because it is a dream for me.”

The 16th-seeded Musetti – who led 2 sets to love against Djokovic at the 2021 French Open before retiring in the fifth set, will take on Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals.

The seventh-seeded Sinner came from behind and saved a match point to get past No. 10-seeded Hubert Hurkacz 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1.

Sinner trailed by a set and a break then came out on top of a 22-shot rally when down 6-5 in the tiebreaker to remain in the match. Hurkacz lost the next two points and threw his racket in anger, then totally lost his focus in the decider.

“Playing against him, I knew already from the beginning that it was very tough to get into the rhythm,” Sinner said. “I think he served incredible in the first one-and-a-half sets, and when I broke him the first time the momentum changed a little bit.”

Also, German qualifier Jan-Lennard Struff took another step in his comeback from an injury as he upset fourth-seeded Casper Ruud 6-1, 7-6 (6).

Having been ranked 29th, Struff dropped as low as No. 168 after sustaining a foot fracture last year during a match in Miami, an injury that left him sidelined for more than two months.

Struff has enjoyed a good start to the season and returned to the Top 100 last month but had not beaten anyone in the Top 10 since June 2021. His aggressive style of play resulted in 37 winners and 23 points won at the net against Ruud, who dropped his serve four times.

Struff ended Ruud’s nine-match winning streak on clay. The 2022 French Open runner-up had won his past two tournaments on the surface, in Gstaad last July and in Estoril last week.

Struff will next be up against 2021 runner-up Andrey Rublev, who beat Karen Khachanov 7-6 (4), 6-2 at the Country Club.

“We know each other too well,” Rublev said. “The first set was only mental. We didn’t show some tennis skills. But it was tough to show skills because the wind was really hard and the court was slippery and it was tough to do something.”

Two-time defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Nicolas Jarry 6-3, 6-4 without dropping his serve.

“I had to deal with a few (tough) points, especially when he had break points,” said Tsitsipas, who next plays eighth-seeded Taylor Fritz. “I dealt with those situations very maturely and played precisely, so it was great out there.”

Sixth-seeded Holger Rune advanced to the quarterfinals without playing when Matteo Berrettini withdrew due to an injury. Third-seeded Daniil Medvedev was scheduled to play 13th-seeded Alexander Zverev later.

The women’s professional tennis tour will bring its events back to China later this year, announcing the end of a boycott instituted in late 2021 over concerns about the safety of former player Peng Shuai after she accused a high-ranking government official there of sexual assault.

WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon said in an interview with The Associated Press that while what he sought was never delivered – a chance for someone from the tour to meet with Peng, along with a full and transparent investigation into the Grand Slam doubles champion’s accusations – the decision was made, with input from player and tournament representatives, to return to the country.

“The stance that we took at the time was appropriate. And we stand by that. But 16 months into this, we’re convinced that our requests will not be met. And to continue with the same strategy doesn’t make sense,” Simon said from St. Petersburg, Florida, where the WTA is based.

“So we needed to look at a different approach. With this, our members believe it’s time to resume the mission in China, where we believe we can continue to make a positive difference, as we have for the last 20 years, while at the same time making sure that Peng is not forgotten. By returning, hopefully more progress can be made.”

Although there have been no reports of Peng sightings in public since carefully orchestrated appearances during the Beijing Olympics in February 2022, Simon said the WTA has “received assurances from people who are close to her, that we’ve been in contact with, that she is safe and living with her family in Beijing.”

He added that the tour has been assured by the Chinese Tennis Association, the sport’s national governing body, that “there won’t be any issues with our athletes or our staff while they’re competing within the region.”

He called the change in course “an organizational decision” and noted: “The great majority of the athletes were supportive and wanted to see a return … and felt it was time to go back.”

The tour’s schedule in China should be revealed in the next couple of weeks, Simon said. It will begin in September and include the season-ending WTA Finals in Shenzhen and other stops similar to what was played in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic led to a round of cancellations.

Peng, now 37, won doubles trophies at Wimbledon and the French Open and reached the No. 1 ranking in doubles; in singles, she was a U.S. Open semifinalist and was ranked as high as No. 14. She dropped out of public view after saying in a social media post in November 2021 that former vice premier Zhang Gaoli forced her to have sex. The post was quickly taken down by Chinese authorities.

The following month, Simon – with the backing of the WTA Board of Directors, players, tournaments and sponsors – said the tour would suspend play in China. That was the strongest public stand against China by a sports body and cost the WTA millions of dollars in revenue.

Peng later tried to recant, including in a controlled interview during last year’s Winter Games. After the Olympics, the global attention and outrage raised by her case – “ Where is Peng Shuai? ” was a popular rallying cry, a T-shirt slogan seen at Grand Slam tournaments, a trending topic on social media – seems to have lessened.

The ATP men’s tennis tour and the International Tennis Federation, which oversees the Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup along with lower-level tournaments for individual players, recently said they would resume operations in China after staying away because of COVID-19.

Back when he first delivered the news about leaving China, Simon told the AP: ”… the one thing that we can’t do is walk away from this, because if we’re walking away from the key elements – which is obviously not only her well-being, but the investigation – then we’re telling the world that not addressing sexual assault with respect to the seriousness it requires is OK, because it’s too difficult. And it’s simply something that we can’t let happen.”

Asked whether Thursday’s move could be construed by some as backing down, Simon replied: “Well, everybody will have their own opinions on that, for sure. I can understand how someone might look at it that way, for sure. But we took a stand that no one else has. And, I think, from that, we did receive some things that we didn’t think we would get, as well,” citing the assurances about Peng’s safety and that of WTA players and staff upon return to China.