Recently, Ben Shelton bested his compatriot Taylor Fritz in the final of the Stuttgart Open. This was Shelton’s third title of the ongoing season and his first overall on grass. Former World no.1 Andy Roddick reckons Fritz and Shelton making it to the final of the BOSS Open is really good news for American tennis.
Shelton is currently 23-9 in the ongoing season and apart from winning in Stuttgart, he was able to go all the way in Dallas and Munich. However, the American is 9-9 elsewhere on tour if we take way his record in three titles he has won.
Shelton only broke six times en route to the title in Stuttgart, winning three tiebreakers. Roddick reckons the left-hander needs to break his opponent more to savour more success on grass.
“[Ben] Shelton beats [Taylor] Fritz in Stuttgart. This is a good result; it’s an interesting year,” Roddick said on his podcast.
“He’s won three times, Dallas, Munich, both big events, now wins first tournament on grass, and he’s sprinkled in some stretches where he loses first or second round for six weeks at a time.
Roddick added that the American duo of Shelton and Fritz could be the one to watch out for at SW19.
“Listen, Shelton made quarters last year, and played Jannik pretty tough. Fritz, semi-finals last year at Wimbledon, played a tough one against Carlos [Alcaraz]; we forget that that was Carlos’ toughest match. Apologies to [Fabio] Fognini, but I think we all felt like he was going to get through that,” said Roddick.
“This is great, this is great news for US tennis.
“Ben and Taylor re-establishing their form on grass.
“Ben winning a lot of tiebreakers, no surprise there; he’s going to have to break a little bit more to really make semis, finals of Wimbledon.”
Speaking on Fritz, Roddick said the American doesn’t need to make a lot of adjustments in his game on grass.
“Fritz’s game is plug-and-play on grass,” he said.
“I don’t think there are a ton of adjustments for him to make.
“We talked about hard and flat through the middle, taking the ball’s line, his ball flight has never been accused of being super spinny.
“If he serves well, and wins a high percentage of second serve points, because there is a decent-sized delta between his first serve and his second serve, I like Taylor Fritz a lot at Wimbledon.
“If he looks like he’s in shape, he took some time to get his knee healthy; circle his name.
“I love what I’m seeing from Ben. Little bit of a rollercoaster; we’ll see what they do over the next couple of weeks, but this was a great sign from both of them.
“Happy times. I’m sure neither one of them is disappointed to be off the clay!”
