{"id":25466,"date":"2025-07-26T16:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T16:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/25466\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T16:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T16:48:08","slug":"ben-shelton-claims-frances-tiafoe-has-the-ability-to-do-something-pretty-silly-which-he-copied-at-the-washington-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/25466\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Shelton claims Frances Tiafoe has the ability to do something \u2018pretty silly\u2019 which he copied at the Washington Open"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ben Shelton has reserved special praise for Frances Tiafoe after their Washington Open match yesterday, in which he came out on top.<\/p>\n

It was a hard-fought encounter, but the 22-year-old managed to handle the conditions better to deservedly earn his spot in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear that, particularly across the last few years, these two Americans have seen their friendship blossom.<\/p>\n

At least from the outside looking in, it\u2019s been wholesome to watch.<\/p>\n

\"BenPhoto by Scott Taetsch\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

However, as competitors, there is an odd dynamic that often plays out on the tour, and this is no different.<\/p>\n

Despite this potential awkwardness, the mutual respect between Ben Shelton<\/a> and Frances Tiafoe<\/a> is apparent, with the former being the latest to praise his compatriot.<\/p>\n

Ben Shelton praises Frances Tiafoe trait after beating him at the Washington Open<\/p>\n

Speaking at his Washington Open<\/a> press conference after his 7-6 (2), 6-4 victory, Shelton cut an upbeat figure as he analysed his match against Tiafoe.<\/p>\n

Asked about a particular flashpoint in the second set, where he failed to convert break points, one reporter wondered how he remained level after such a moment and avoided getting frustrated.<\/p>\n

Shelton replied: \u201cYeah, I just continued playing. You know, I got some second-serve looks on his game points, which I played freely and aggressive and was able to capitalise.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then, you know, I played the deuce points well, but I was just trying to stay there, stay steady. Obviously, he\u2019s feeling the pressure. His back\u2019s against the wall, and I know how well I\u2019m returning and playing in that moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you know how much pressure you\u2019re putting on a guy when they have to save, you know, five or six breakpoints and you\u2019re making every return, and they\u2019ve got to come up with the goods over and over, because I feel the same thing against him a lot.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, the hand skills he has, the way he\u2019s able to take my return off the hop on the baseline, 145-mile-an-hour serve, put it at my feet, is pretty silly, and I think that the way that I was returning tonight probably put similar-type pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of took confidence in that and knew that if it wasn\u2019t that game, the way I was returning, I was going to give myself more looks later in the set and have chances to break, and the way I was serving it was going to be tough to break me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his own presser, Tiafoe admitted he did something \u2018unacceptable\u2019 against Shelton<\/a>, which he felt cost him the match.<\/p>\n

Ben Shelton could be on for a huge rankings boost in the next few months<\/p>\n

Whilst Tiafoe has plenty of points to defend throughout this North American swing of the tour, Shelton is blessed with the opposite.<\/p>\n

After all, he\u2019s already matched last year\u2019s run to the semi-final, thus cementing his new career-high spot of seventh in the world, and has relatively little to defend in his next three events too.<\/p>\n

At Toronto last year, he only made it to the Round of 32. With the hugely weakened field, he should have aspirations of winning the entire event.<\/p>\n

\"BenPhoto by Scott Taetsch\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Then, in Cincinnati, he has quarter-final points to defend, which should be manageable for a player in the form that he is enjoying.<\/p>\n

Finally, a third-round at the US Open last year marked a huge underperformance from a former semi-finalist at that event.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s expected that, before the final Grand Slam of the year, he will be at a career-best position in the world rankings.<\/p>\n

Should he go really deep at that tournament too, the sky really is the limit for Shelton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Shelton has reserved special praise for Frances Tiafoe after their Washington Open match yesterday, in which he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[9475,9476,101,118,56,54,55,6963],"class_list":{"0":"post-25466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ben-shelton","9":"tag-frances-tiafoe","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom","15":"tag-washington-open"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}