Ben Shelton Overcomes Early Struggles to Advance in U.S. Open

NEW YORK – Under the lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium, Ben Shelton looked nothing like a man chasing history. For half an hour, he was hanging on.

The eighth seed was ragged, rushed, and rattled. Tallon Griekspoor was not. The Dutchman tore through the opening set 6-1, bullying the top American in the men’s draw with aggressive, front-foot tennis while Shelton sprayed errors all over the court.

Fourteen unforced errors. Two double faults. Just one service hold. For a player hoping to become the first American man to win the U.S. Open since 2003, it was a brutal start.

Then the match flipped.

Shelton, fresh off defending his Canadian Open title and desperate to turn around a disappointing Grand Slam season, finally settled. The nerves that gripped him early began to loosen somewhere in the second set, just as he later admitted. His feet looked lighter, his forehand heavier, his serve suddenly a weapon instead of a liability.

The second set became a statement. Shelton sharpened his first delivery, found his targets, and broke Griekspoor three times. The rhythm that had been missing in the opener arrived in a rush, and with it came a 6-1 response that mirrored the Dutchman’s own early dominance.

Griekspoor, still riding the confidence of his upset over top seed Alexander Zverev in Montreal, tried to swing the momentum back in the third. The rallies grew tighter, the margins smaller. Shelton no longer dictated at will, but he no longer looked lost either.

The set marched to a tiebreak, and that was where the pressure told.

Griekspoor’s game, built on aggression, began to fray at the edges. Errors crept in at the worst possible moments. His serve, so solid early, betrayed him. On his sixth double fault of the night, he handed Shelton the tiebreak 7-3 and, with it, the lead on the scoreboard.

From there, the American took control with a ruthlessness that had been missing at the start.

Shelton surged to a 4-0 lead in the fourth set, now dictating the patterns, now the one pinning his opponent behind the baseline. The forehand that had flown long in the first set started to scorch the lines. The serve that had wobbled began to thunder. Griekspoor, who had once looked poised for a major scalp, found himself chasing shadows.

Shelton closed it out 1-6 6-1 7-6(3) 6-2, a scoreline that tells the story of a match in two distinct halves: one dominated by doubt, the other by conviction.

Afterward, he paid respect to the man who had pushed him into that uncomfortable early corner, noting how Griekspoor’s attacking style and lack of rhythm made the first set “really difficult.” It showed.

But the 23-year-old is still hunting a first Grand Slam title, and nights like this matter. He arrived in New York with momentum, and he leaves his first-round test with something just as valuable: proof that he can ride out a storm on the sport’s biggest stage and still find a way.

Next up is Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz in the second round.

The title drought for American men in New York stretches back more than two decades. Shelton is not shying away from that weight. The question now is whether this bruising, uneven, ultimately impressive opening win is the start of something larger—or just another flicker in a season searching for a defining run.