{"id":240308,"date":"2025-10-25T17:26:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T17:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/240308\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T17:26:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T17:26:10","slug":"ben-shelton-has-a-problem-with-a-spanish-player-on-tour-and-its-not-carlos-alcaraz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/240308\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Shelton has a problem with a Spanish player on tour and it’s not Carlos Alcaraz"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Follow us on Google Discover <\/a> <\/p>\n

Ben Shelton has really struggled against one player on the ATP Tour this year.<\/p>\n

The American has enjoyed the best season of his career in 2025, breaking into the top ten and winning his first Masters 1000 title at the Canadian Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say he\u2019s had the perfect year, however, as Shelton<\/a> has lost 20 matches.<\/p>\n

\"BenPhoto by Sarah Stier\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Three of those defeats have come against one player, who has dominated the American whenever they\u2019ve met on the ATP Tour<\/a> in 2025.<\/p>\n

Shelton\u2019s struggles against the Spaniard are surprising, but what\u2019s more surprising is that the Spaniard in question isn\u2019t Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

Ben Shelton is 0-3 against Jaume Munar in 2025<\/p>\n

A finalist at the Swiss Indoors 12 months ago, Shelton was looking to make another deep run this time around.<\/p>\n

Surviving a match point to beat Kamil Majchrzak in round one, Shelton advanced to play Spain\u2019s Jaume Munar.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old couldn\u2019t keep up with Munar, as he fell to a convincing 6-3, 6-4 defeat.<\/p>\n

Munar now leads the head-to-head with Shelton 3-1, having picked up three wins over him in 2025.<\/p>\n

2025 Swiss Indoors 2R \u2013 Jaume Munar defeated Ben Shelton, 6-3, 6-42025 Italian Open 2R \u2013 Jaume Munar defeated Ben Shelton, 6-2, 6-12025 Dallas Open 2R \u2013 Jaume Munar defeated Ben Shelton, 6-2, 7-6<\/p>\n

No player has beaten Shelton more times this year than Munar (Alexander Zverev \u2013 3, Jannik Sinner \u2013 2, David Goffin \u2013 2, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina \u2013 2, Jakub Mensik).<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s going wrong for Shelton against the world number 42?<\/p>\n

\"BenPhoto by JADE GAO\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Speaking to Tennis TV after his latest win over Shelton, Munar explained how he has managed to win three in a row against the top-10 star.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn tennis, there are always players whose playing style you might adapt to a little better, players against whom your own style fits in a special way. In this case, I always vividly remember the first time we faced each other, in Shanghai 2023, where I made the mistake of playing with very short shots,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom that point on, I began to study his strengths a bit better, especially his serve, although there are many other things he does very well. The truth is that I feel comfortable when I play against him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feeling of competing against one of the best in the world is always very special; I can only be proud of having served and played really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Munar feeling \u2018comfortable\u2019 playing against Shelton, the American might want to mix things up the next time they meet.<\/p>\n

Jaume Munar is having the best season of his career<\/p>\n

In Shelton\u2019s defence, Munar has been a tough out for several players this year, as he continues to improve.<\/p>\n

Ranked 63rd in the world at the end of 2024, Munar is now sitting at 38th in the Live Rankings, one spot off his career high.<\/p>\n

\"JaumePhoto by Shaun Brooks \u2013 CameraSport via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old has beaten the likes of Daniil Medvedev<\/a>, Lorenzo Musetti, and Alexander Bublik this year, but it\u2019s during his losing efforts where he\u2019s impressed the most.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Munar met his countryman, Alcaraz, on grass at the Queen\u2019s Club Championships<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Playing one of the best matches of his career, Munar battled back from a set down to force a decider in London.<\/p>\n

Eventually coming up short in three sets, 4-6, 7-6 (9-7), 5-7, Munar earned the respect of those in attendance.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard wasn\u2019t done testing the very best in men\u2019s tennis, however, as he produced another stellar display when he played Novak Djokovic<\/a> in Shanghai.<\/p>\n

Dropping the first set just as he did against Alcaraz at Queen\u2019s, Munar found another gear in the second against the Serb.<\/p>\n

Breaking late, Munar took the second set 7-5, as he edged closer to a maiden Masters 1000 quarterfinal.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t to be, however, as Djokovic recovered to secure the win in three sets<\/a>, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.<\/p>\n

He also lost in a deciding set twice this year to three-time Grand Slam finalist Casper Ruud<\/a>, coming up short against the Norwegian at the Australian Open and Dallas Open.<\/p>\n

If Munar can find the extra 5-10% he needs to start beating top-10 players (other than Shelton), then he could well be one to look out for in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover Ben Shelton has really struggled against one player on the ATP Tour this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[753,64,63,21693,962,143541,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-240308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-ben-shelton","12":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","13":"tag-jaume-munar","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}