Wimbledon 2025: Speedy Shelton makes quick work of unfinished business
The Times of India at Wimbledon:
Ben Shelton was to serve for the Wimbledon second-round match against Aussie Rinky Hijikata late on Thursday evening when play was suspended at 9.29.
Natural light was fading and in five minutes would be insufficient for electronic line-calling, now a thing at SW19.
The American, armed with a sledgehammer serve, tried to plead his case. He asked for 60 seconds, but the officials were firm, even though he hadn't dropped serve in the match. What if? Shelton and Hijikata wanted play to be stopped earlier in the evening because of the light, but their requests had been shot down.
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On Friday, it took the strapping 10th seed all of 70 seconds to close out the match. It wasn't a I-told-you-so show, but it might as well have been. Shelton served three aces to seal a 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 win in two hours and 12 minutes on a sparky afternoon on Court No. 2.
In the third round on Saturday, Shelton will play Hungary's Marton Fucsovics, who survived a five-setter against Gael Monfils in the second round, which was also completed on Friday.
Poll
What do you think about the decision to suspend the match due to fading light?
It was the right call.
They should have continued playing.
The 22-year-old Shelton, the highest seed remaining in his section of the draw after the seventh seed Lorenzo Musetti fell in the first round, was quick to reset and roll.
'It's normal, it's part of tennis. Everything is not going to be the same whether it is weather (or) conditions,' he said, adding, 'I'm just happy with the way I handled it, coming out today and taking care of my business. I don't think that physically it is a big deal for me playing one game.'
Shelton playing only his third Wimbledon, having made the second week of The Championships last year, returned to court for a second successive day, committed to play, despite the match running on loop in his head the previous evening.
'You're thinking about what you did, what you could have done, how you could have been off the court, what you're going to do when you get back out there,' he said, adding that he couldn't relax after getting back home. 'What's my game plan going to be for that one service game to make sure that I hold?'
Shelton wanted to make first serves, he was determined not to give his opponent a look at his second serves.
'I had a calculated approach with how I was going about my service game. I wasn't going for four aces, the first serve was supposed to be forehand body, it ended up being an ace,' he said.
'Once I get my first ace in a service game, my confidence goes through the roof. After that I started going for aces and abandoned the plan we had,' Shelton added.
Confidence was the trigger for the final ace, which kicked at 147 mph. Hijikata applauded his opponent.
'You can pick your return spots or guess all you want, but when he is serving 145 (mph) or whatever it is, I could have guessed right, still probably not got a racquet on it,' the Aussie said. 'That was an absolute clinic on how to serve out a match if you got one game to go.'
Shelton followed Naomi Osaka onto Court No. 2 on Friday, where the Japanese, a four-time major winner, bowed out to Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 4-6, 4-6 in the third round.
In other third round matches, Australian Open champion Madison Keys, seeded six, was bounced out by German Laura Siegemund 6-3, 6-3.
Fifth seeded American Taylor Fritz scored a 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-1 to win over the newly married Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Russian 14th-seed Andrey Rublev put out Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 in just under two-hours.
Fighting win for Bhambri-Jiang pair
Yuki Bhambri and China's Xinyu Jiang got the better of the all-American pairing of Christian Harrison and Nicole Melichar-Martinez in a roller-coaster mixed doubles first-round match. The Indo-Chinese combine came through 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (10-6) in one-hour and 44-minutes. Meanwhile Arjun Kadhe and Czech Vit Kopriva, who made the men's doubles draw as alternates, went down 4-6, 4-6 to the Aussie-American team of Mathew Christopher Romios and Ryan Seggerman.
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