Latest news with #Shelton
New York Times
9 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
U.S. Open announces mixed doubles direct entries, wild cards include Alcaraz and Raducanu
Now the U.S. Open mixed doubles fun can really begin. Heavy on glitz and singles stars, the 16-team tournament will be lighter on doubles players who have honed their skills on that tour. With registration closed, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) has announced 14 of the 16 teams, eight of them direct entries and six of them wild cards. Advertisement Last week, the USTA announced 25 high-profile teams as entries, but fewer than a third had a shot of making it straight into the new tournament, which will be held Aug. 19 and 20 at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in New York City. It will conclude four days before the singles main draws begin. Teams with players who have the eight lowest combined singles rankings gain automatic entry. There are automatic places for defending men's singles champion Jannik Sinner, Wimbledon champion Iga Świątek and last year's U.S. Open finalist Taylor Fritz, but Carlos Alcaraz's partnership with Emma Raducanu, and 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic and compatriot Olga Danilović, both required wild cards. It's tough getting into a mixed doubles Grand Slam these days — well, this one, at least, Kateřina Siniaková and Marcelo Arévalo, two of the best doubles players in the world, are on the outside looking in. *Belinda Bencic entered with a special ranking of world No. 15. She is currently world No. 20. The first six wild card entries are as follows: The decision on the remaining two wild cards will be a test of the U.S. Open's less-than-unspoken priorities for a mixed doubles event designed to pack two stadiums over two days and draw eyeballs to the ESPN coverage of the event. That means getting the most famous stars to play, with $1 million for the winning team, eschewing any concerns about who is actually the best at the discipline. Townsend being the new world No. 1 in doubles, and Siniaková being the person she overtook to get there, is already secondary to the stardom factor. Townsend and Shelton getting a wild card has more to do with their pairing, bringing together the hot new thing of American men's tennis and a three-time Grand Slam semifinalist with a legitimate doubles star. They may actually be a good pick to win the thing. They played mixed in New York together before, reaching the semifinals in 2023, and Shelton played doubles this year with Rohan Bopanna, a former men's world No. 1. Advertisement The Alcaraz and Raducanu partnership is gold dust, and both have endorsement deals with Evian, which is a U.S. Open sponsor. Williams, the seven-time Grand Slam champion and 45-year-old Washington Open wild card who thrilled crowds in D.C., is an easy pick. She beat the world No. 35 Peyton Stearns in singles and won a doubles match with Hailey Baptiste. If a Williams sister is offering up her services to a tournament, she usually gets in. One player missing is Aryna Sabalenka, whose proposed partner, Grigor Dimitrov, withdrew with the pectoral muscle injury he sustained at Wimbledon. One of the most compelling athletes in the sport, Sabalenka has been on something of a reputation-enhancement campaign since her implosion in the French Open final and during the ensuing news conference, when she said Coco Gauff didn't win as much as she lost. It was raw, honest and poor form all at once, and it garnered a lot of online attention, most of it negative. She would be in line for a wild card if she entered, but with whom? What to do with Osaka and Kyrgios, who have not been setting the scoreboards alight for some time but had signed up for the tournament? When it comes to recognition in the wider sporting world, there is no argument against their inclusion. But Kyrgios has barely played professional tennis this year. Doubles players have criticized the USTA for devaluing a Grand Slam trophy. USTA executives have responded that not enough people were watching or even thinking about mixed doubles. Nothing, they argue, devalues an event more than that. So out went the 32-team tournament played alongside the singles events. In came first-to-four-games sets, with no-ad scoring and a match tiebreak at a set apiece. The business will get done well ahead of the singles, giving players a competitive warm-up and the broader tournament a huge promotional boost. The start of the U.S. Open proper on Aug. 24 should not take anyone by surprise. Advertisement The big surprise might be if all the players who have raised their hands to play actually play. The biggest complication might be the singles finals of the Cincinnati Open, which will take place on Monday, Aug. 18, the day before the mixed doubles start. Two years ago, Alcaraz and Djokovic slugged it out for nearly four hours in the men's final, in the intense Ohio summer heat. Would they have gotten on a plane and flown in for mixed doubles the next morning? Action is supposed to get underway beginning at 11 a.m. Tuesday the 19th. Theoretically, the USTA will have a few teams on reserve as injuries and scheduling conflicts arise. Who's going to agree to that? Maybe the actual doubles players of renown, people such as Siniaková and Arévalo, or Desirae Krawczyk and Evan King, or Hsieh Su-wei and Jan Zieliński. $1 million is $1 million after all — and the actual doubles players think they have a built-in advantage. Olympic results from last year go some distance toward proving that point. With two wild cards not to be announced until later — and considering no one asked for this input — here's who seems most likely to gain entry. And then:
USA Today
a day ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Ben Shelton rises in ATP rankings for third week in a row
Following another semifinal appearance at the DC Open, Ben Shelton is now officially the No. 7 player on the ATP rankings, marking a new high point in his young career for the third week in a row. Shelton locked up the position by the middle of last week during the Mubadala Citi DC Open. Playing into the semifinal gives him a 185-point lead on Alex de Minaur, who won the Washington 500 and moved up five spots. Shelton is losing 190 points this week, but he should easily win them back playing in the Toronto Masters tournament this week. Since the schedule is staggered from last year, the trick will be to make up the 190 points from the 2024 Washington 500, plus the 45 points from the Canada Masters. A return to the semifinals does the trick with 360 points; reaching the final would grant at least 600. Shelton gets a bye in the first round of the Toronto 1000 and will play either Marcos Giron or Adrian Mannarino, who reached through the qualifiers. Assuming he makes it through to the Round of 32, another meeting with Brandon Nakashima appears likely. Shelton is 4-0 against Nakashima in head-to-head matchups. With a 96-player draw, it's a bit difficult to predict further down the bracket, but potential matchups with Flavio Cobolli, Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe and Alexander Zverev exist. Stay tuned with Gators Wire for recaps throughout the week. Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Country Star, 49, Was Once the Only Boy in Beauty Pageants – and It Nearly Ended His Career
Country Star, 49, Was Once the Only Boy in Beauty Pageants – and It Nearly Ended His Career originally appeared on Parade. is one of country music's biggest names, but the Oklahoma native almost turned away from his career before it even began all thanks to his time in beauty pageants. When he was a small child, Shelton was so desperate to sing that his mom would put him in beauty pageants to give him an opportunity on stage. 'Can't you tell that I'm beauty pageant material?' Shelton joked during an appearance on the 'Q With Tom Power' podcast. 'I had two signature songs back then. I think I was probably seven years old and I was probably, in Ada, Oklahoma, the only boy in the entire pageant, you know? My two songs were 'Old Time Rock 'N Roll' and 'Cat Scratch Fever' by Ted Nugent.' The 'Stay Country or Die Tryin'' singer added that neither he nor his mom really knew what 'Cat Scratch Fever' was about and said that he 'literally thought it was about somebody's house cat scratching them and making them sick.' 'I was so embarrassed and humiliated by being in those pageants, I told her, 'Mom, I don't want to sing anymore because it's just embarrassing and my friends are going to find out,'' Shelton continued. 'But I quit after that because it was just embarrassing, and it wasn't until I was probably 12 or 13 that I started wanting to perform again.' Once Shelton's mom knew how he really felt about being in the beauty pageants, she began entering him in 'little Opry type hometown shows around Ada.' Her persistence paid off and eventually Shelton was performing with a variety of different stars like Kentucky Head Hunters and Travis Tritt. Thankfully, that's all it took to change his mind. 'I was getting to do some country music, you know, and by then, in my mind, there was no stopping me. This is what I was going to do." 🎬 SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 Country Star, 49, Was Once the Only Boy in Beauty Pageants – and It Nearly Ended His Career first appeared on Parade on Jul 25, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 25, 2025, where it first appeared. Solve the daily Crossword
USA Today
3 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Ben Shelton takes down Francis Tiafoe in DC Open quarter-finals
Ben Shelton continued his dominant run at the Mubadala Citi DC Open on Friday night with a 7-6(2), 6-4 victory over Francis Tiafoe, who was the hometown favorite in Washington. Shelton and Tiafoe are no strangers to one another. They played doubles together a few days ago and have now met four times in ATP Tour events. "We know tennis is a long journey. We're going to play each other a bunch of times. Especially, we've already played on the hard courts, we've already played twice at the US Open, and he beat me the most recent time. It's tough not to cheer for a guy like that,' Shelton said. The first set stayed on serve until the 11th game, when Tiafoe broke Shelton to love. The former Florida Gator bounced back immediately, breaking Tiafoe and forcing a tie-break. Shelton used his power forehand to claim the first set, delivering a 144 mph serve in the process. Shelton broke first in the second set at 3-3, and it was cruise control from there. The win puts Shelton ahead, 3-1, in the Head2Head series. Shelton already secured the No. 7 spot on the rankings by making the quarter-finals, but every win gets him closer and closer to No. 6 Novak Djokovic, who many consider to be the greatest of all time. It's a 600-point gap to close, but winning this tournament would cut that number in half. Winning the Washington 500 seems very doable with top-seeded Taylor Fritz falling in the quarters against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Shelton is now the highest-seeded player remaining in the tournament. Still, he will have to get by Davidovich Fokina before facing the winner of the 7-seed Alex de Minaur vs. lucky loser Corentin Moutet. De Minaur and Moutet are scheduled to begin not before 7 p.m. ET, and Shelton vs. Davidovich Fokina will follow — so drink some coffee. Fans can watch the match on the Tennis Channel using cable or streaming, and the TennisTV app is also an option (subscription required). Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.
Dubai Eye
4 days ago
- Sport
- Dubai Eye
Raducanu reaches semi-final of Washington Open after straight-set victory
Emma Raducanu overcame the stifling heat and beat Maria Sakkari in straight sets to advance to the semifinals of the Washington Open. She will next face Russian Anna Kalinskaya. Meanwhile, Canadian Leylah Fernandez will take on third seed Elena Rybakina in the semis of the ATP and WTA 500 event on Saturday. If Raducanu and Fernandez clear the semis, they will set up a potential rematch of the 2021 US Open final.R On the men's side, Ben Shelton beat fellow American Frances Tiafoe 7-6(2) 6-4 in an electrifying match on Friday to advance to the semifinals. Shelton blasted an ace on match point to seal the win and avenge his five-set loss to Tiafoe at last year's US Open as the 22-year-old continues to make strides in his breakout season. Hometown hero Tiafoe had the support of the energized crowd but lost momentum when he was unable to serve out the first set while up 6-5, leading to a tiebreak that Shelton dominated. The second set hinged on a marathon game at 3-3, where Shelton pocketed a break thanks to a Taifoe double fault. Shelton rode his huge lefty serve from there to grab the win and set up a semi-final meeting with either top seed Taylor Fritz or Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. "It was a tough one for sure but enjoyable nonetheless," Shelton told Tennis Channel. "I love playing against Foe. Difficult guy to play against but playing him here in the US, especially being here in D.C., it was packed, it was a great atmosphere. I couldn't be happier." Earlier, tournament lucky loser Corentin Moutet stunned Russia's Daniil Medvedev 6-1 4-6 4-6 in a wild match interrupted by an hour-long delay due to the threat of thunderstorms. Moutet, leading 5-4 in the final set when they returned to the court, was hobbled by leg cramps but completed the upset in a final game that featured three double faults by Medvedev and a frantic match point. The Frenchman fell on his back in relief after securing the victory as Medvedev threw his racket and proceeded to take out his frustration on several water bottles, drawing boos from the crowd. "That is a great way to finish the match," said world number 59 Moutet. "I was with my coach when we were up 5-4 and I said okay, I have to win the next game because my body cannot handle too much more." Moutet will face Australian seventh seed Alex de Minaur, who was a 6-4 6-4 winner over Brandon Nakashima.
