Shelton survives in five again at Wimbledon

After Lloyd Harris hit a final backhand passing shot wide Thursday afternoon on a beautiful London day, Ben Shelton dropped his racquet to the Court 18 grass and held his arms outward. Not only was the American celebrating a memorable victory, but he was seemingly saying with his motion, “How about that?”

For the second consecutive match at Wimbledon, the 21-year-old survived in five sets. The 14th-seeded Shelton battled past qualifier Lloyd Harris 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-6(10-7) in a gripping three-hour, 14-minute encounter.

The atmosphere was closer to that of a football match than what you might expect at SW19. When Shelton attacked Harris’ backhand to force an error at 6/5 in the final-set tie-break, earning a critical mini-break, fans burst out into chants of “USA! USA! USA!” It is only fitting it is the fourth of July.

Among those watching from the terrace above were tournament director Jamie Baker, Lleyton Hewitt’s son Cruz Hewitt and the USTA’s Martin Blackman.

SW19 SHELTON 🔥@BenShelton pushed all the way by Harris 4-6 7-6(5) 6-7(5) 6-3 7-6(7) advances to the 3rd round!@Wimbledon | #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/acRmjpvKI8

— ATP Tour (@atptour) July 4, 2024

Shelton relinquished the mini-break and was in big trouble on the next point, but Harris missed a short backhand that would have given him the advantage.

The South African, who won a final-set tie-break in his opening match against Alex Michelsen, then missed a makeable forehand volley on a serve-and-volley attempt. That proved the crucial mistake.

Shelton showed great feel around the net under the pressure in the Match Tie-break to advance to the third round at The Championships for the first time, two days after rallying past Mattia Bellucci in a deciding set. He will next face Canadian Denis Shapovalov, who also won a five-setter.

The former No. 10 player in the PIF ATP Rankings clawed past German Daniel Altmaier 7-6(3), 6-3, 1-6, 6-7(3), 6-4. Shapovalov has now reached the third round at Wimbledon in three of the past four editions.

The Shelton-Shapovalov clash will be the pair’s first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting. Both men are dynamic left-handed players who are capable of landing jaw-dropping shots and bringing the crowd into the match.

Shelton broke through on the Grand Slam stage last year when he made the semi-finals of the US Open, becoming the youngest American man to accomplish the feat since Michael Chang in 1992.