{"id":26232,"date":"2025-07-27T01:50:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T01:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/26232\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T01:50:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T01:50:12","slug":"ben-shelton-says-what-is-scary-for-everyone-else-on-the-atp-tour-about-frances-tiafoe-people-are-in-trouble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/26232\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Shelton says what is &#8216;scary&#8217; for everyone else on the ATP Tour about Frances Tiafoe, &#8216;people are in trouble&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Ben Shelton has booked his place in the Washington Open semi-finals after defeating Frances Tiafoe in straight sets. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/ben-shelton\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Shelton<\/a> defeated American compatriot <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/frances-tiafoe\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tiafoe<\/a> 7-6, 6-4, in front of a home crowd to advance to the final four, where he\u2019ll face Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. <\/p>\n<p>Davidovich knocked out the top seed, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/taylor-fritz\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Taylor Fritz<\/a>, to set up a clash with the 22-year-old, against whom he is undefeated. <\/p>\n<p>Ahead of his match with the Spaniard, Shelton took a moment to acknowledge the efforts of his quarter-final opponent.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753581011_650_GettyImages-2227045930-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Ben Shelton reacts in his match against Frances Tiafoe in Washington.\" class=\"wp-image-115161\" \/>Photo by Scott Taetsch\/Getty ImagesBen Shelton gives high praise to Frances Tiafoe after their clash in D.C.<\/p>\n<p>When asked if Tiafoe was not \u2018locked in\u2019 during their bout, Shelton replied in his post-match press conference: \u201cNo, no. I definitely think that he\u2019s locked in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s one of those guys who can turn the switch on whenever he wants it, and you guys are seeing more and more weeks every year that he\u2019s playing his brand of tennis, really good tennis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s scary for the rest of the field. He\u2019ll even say it himself. He used to be a guy who\u2019d show up in the American hard-court swing and a few other times during the year, and those would be his big moments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe guy\u2019s making quarterfinals at Roland Garros now, and people are in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2227045494-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Mubadala Citi DC Open 2025 - Day 5\" \/>Photo by Scott Taetsch\/Getty ImagesBen Shelton said what the difference was between him and Frances Tiafoe<\/p>\n<p>On the match, Shelton said: \u201cI think obviously this court does a lot for my serve. The ability to get the ball out of the zone is huge, especially against a guy like Foe, who is so good in the pocket.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo my ability for my flat serves not only to be coming in at 145 but also rising above his shoulders is huge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSecond serve, too. He\u2019s one of the best in the world when he\u2019s locked in, attacking second serves and making you feel like you\u2019re on the back foot, taking a second serve and coming to the net.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy winning percentage on second serve was probably the highest that it\u2019s ever been against him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy aggressive brand of serving, and then I was willing to take chances on the return of serve, and I executed a lot. So I think that combination was kind of tough to deal with in these conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His next opponent, Davidovich Fokina, won both of their previous meetings, which came at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/atp\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ATP<\/a> Masters 1000 events in Monte-Carlo and Paris. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Shelton has booked his place in the Washington Open semi-finals after defeating Frances Tiafoe in straight sets.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[1308,9475,9476,101,118,56,54,55,6963],"class_list":{"0":"post-26232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp","9":"tag-ben-shelton","10":"tag-frances-tiafoe","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom","16":"tag-washington-open"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26232","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=26232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}