Ben Shelton\u2019s quest to return to the U.S. Open semifinals for the second time in three years ended with an apparent left shoulder injury and an emotional exit at Louis Armstrong Stadium.<\/p>\n
Shelton retired following the fourth set of his third-round match against unseeded Adrian Mannarino on Friday, with the injury prompting a visit from the trainer earlier in the contest before ultimately ending the No. 6 seed\u2019s stint in Queens before a decisive fifth set.<\/p>\n
Ben Shelton walks off the court following his Aug. 29 match at the US Open. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
He won the first set, 6-3, but proceeded to drop two of the next three, 3-6, 6-4, 4-6.<\/p>\n
Following the fourth set, Shelton embraced Mannarino near the net and walked off the court to a loud ovation with a towel draped over his head, pausing to acknowledge to the crowd at different points before he reached the tunnel.<\/p>\n
Ben Shelton reacts after retiring in his Aug. 29 match at the US Open. AP<\/p>\n
Ben Shelton grabs his shoulder during his Aug. 29 match. REUTERS<\/p>\n
Ben Shelton reacts at the US Open on Aug. 29. REUTERS<\/p>\n
Shelton\u2019s injury seemingly occurred at set point in the second set, when, in the middle of a lengthy rally, he dove toward the left corner, tumbled onto the court and still managed to send a shot into the corner that Mannarino proceeded to hit into the net.<\/p>\n
Shelton continued to showcase signs of playing through pain during the fourth set before ultimately deciding to stop the match before returning to the court for a fifth.<\/p>\n
Ben Shelton receives medical attention on his left shoulder during his Aug. 29 match at the US Open. REUTERS<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he started having pain, he was leading in the match,\u201d Mannarino said on the court following the match, according to The Tennis Letter.\u201d He probably would\u2019ve won. It\u2019s unfortunate for him and very lucky for me. Don\u2019t really know what to say right now. I suppose I\u2019m happy to get through, but I wish him the best of course.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shelton, who made the semifinals of the Australian Open and the quarterfinals of Wimbledon earlier this year, entered the U.S. Open still looking for his first career Grand Slam title.<\/p>\n
He cruised through his first two matches without dropping a set, and as the player with the second-highest ranking for an American tennis player behind just No. 4 seed Taylor Fritz, Shelton marked one of the country\u2019s best chances for snapping its men\u2019s Grand Slam drought that dates back to Andy Roddick\u2019s 2003 title at the U.S. Open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Shelton\u2019s quest to return to the U.S. Open semifinals for the second time in three years ended…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[431,99,428,14687],"class_list":{"0":"post-119673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ben-shelton","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-tennis","11":"tag-us-open-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}