;Estoril, Portugal–
Ben Shelton made his career clay debut Tuesday in Estoril and he did it in the best possible way, with a 7-5 7-5 victory over Constant Lestienne. You could see some discomfort from the young American on the surface, but he managed to scrap an important victory against an opponent who’s also not particularly comfortable on the clay.
Shelton was in a very happy mood after the match, joking about how Portugal is his favorite country in Europe (it’s the only one he’s ever visited), and went on about how much he’s loving his time in Portugal, from the city, to the beach, to the hotel itself: “The city is beautiful, the beach is amazing. Everybody speaks very good English. And the hotel is fantastic!”
In the second round, the young American is facing Dominic Thiem in what promises to be a very exciting and intriguing matchup. While Thiem is desperately trying to find a way back to his best days (when he won a Slam and was #3 in the world), Shelton is just now steadily coming into his own and hoping to make his way into big title contention himself. While Shelton will be playing only his second ever claycourt match, Thiem will be playing his 219th, two of them being Roland Garros finals.
Under normal circumstances, Thiem would be the overwhelming favorite in this matchup on clay, but as things stand he’s struggling to win any matches at all while Shelton is on the ascendancy and has proved to have the ability to win matches on this surface. This will arguably be the most interesting Round 2 match here in Estoril, with the winner surely fancying their chances of going further in the draw and maybe even compete for the title. A win over Thiem will also get Ben Shelton a new career high ranking of #36, which can go as high as #32 if he wins the title this week.
Main Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
