During the mid 1990s, one of the touring professional players who would stop by and do short training blocks at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy was an American guy named Brian Shelton. Brian was a solid top 150 player in the world, but above all, he was a class act and a pleasure to help out while he was in town. Fast forward some years, and he became the head coach from University of Florida where the team won a Division 1 national title a few years ago. His best recruit ended up being his own son (Ben Shelton), who joined the team in 2020, and this message is about him.
Exactly three years ago, in January of 2021, Ben was playing his first dual match representing University of Florida against University of Central Florida. In this first match and throughout that first college season, Ben played in position 5 for his team, and at the end of the season, he posted a record of 21 wins and 4 loses while always playing position 4, 5 and 6 for his team. It is clear that Ben respected his coaches’ decisions and accepted his position as a freshman needing to gain the experience and leadership skills before challenging the upper positions of the line up.
A year after that, in January of 2022, Ben Shelton played his second season for the Gators (Florida), and this time, he played mainly in position 1 or 2 of the line up posting another positive record of 20 victories and 4 loses. Some physical maturity had taken place, and he no longer was seen as a “kid” among the big boys of the team. He was now a leader; a guy who kept himself and those around him accountable for the many dual matches that they faced, and this translated into that goal of winning a national title for the university.
Last year in January, Ben took advantage of some very strong results at the Challenger level (the ATP tournaments that are a notch below the major events) and earned himself a spot into the main draw of the Australian Open. This was the first time that he left the US soil, and he clearly approached this experience with total abandonment for his fire power and energy on the court. While he almost lost in the first round of the event (barely winning 7/6 in the fifth set), he managed to reach the quarterfinals of the event, and to bring a fresh energy that we have all enjoyed for the past twelve months. Clearly, he took advantage of the coaching information about not having any pressure to perform because of once again being the “freshman” in the pro tour.
As we prepare to start watching, enjoying and learning from the Australian Open, we get ready to support Ben on his new chapter because he is now a top 20 player in the world, someone with a huge fan base, and someone dealing with the pressure and expectations that the media and today’s world put on the up-and-coming American players. Ben has a solid support system that has its feet on the ground, and that is preparing him to try to stay humble as he enters this new season because his team understands how incredibly hard is to manage these expectations. I believe that regardless of how he does in this slam, he is going to continue being a household name for all of us. Cheering for you Ben and for all the American players who have been doing an amazing job during their preseason in preparation for this new year!!
All of our junior players deal with all these stages of competition and the pressures that they each bring. Our job is to work as a team to help them understand that it is always about learning and getting better despite what the scoreboard says. We are the ones in charge of keeping our feet on the ground and keeping them humble. Humility is definitely one of the keys of making sure that progress is sustainable during these hard junior tennis years.
See you on the courts,
