{"id":88273,"date":"2025-08-07T12:07:42","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T16:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=88273"},"modified":"2025-08-07T12:07:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T16:07:42","slug":"atp-toronto-final-preview-ben-shelton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/08\/07\/atp-toronto-final-preview-ben-shelton\/","title":{"rendered":"ATP Toronto Final Preview: can Ben Shelton Win a Maiden Masters 1000 Title?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

After back-to-back Top 10 wins, Ben Shelton continues to break new ground as he reaches a Masters 1000 final for the first time. His opponent standing in the way of what would be his biggest title to date? Karen Khachanov. The perhaps unlikely finalist backs up his quarterfinal run at Wimbledon<\/a> with another strong showing in Toronto, reaching his second Masters 1000 final.<\/p>\n

Ben Shelton: America’s New Hope<\/h3>\n

At the age of 22, Shelton has become the youngest American to reach a Masters 1000 final since Andy Roddick in 2004, and there is no doubt that the young American is playing some of the best tennis of his career right now. Straight set victories against Alex de Minaur and then Taylor Fritz secured back-to-back Top 10 wins for the first time in Shelton’s career, so he arrives to the final in red-hot form.<\/p>\n

While it was a more controlled performance that led him to victory against de Minaur–who, by the way, was on a seven match winning streak–his trademark power saw him through against the equally big-serving Fritz.<\/p>\n

This final marks yet another milestone in Shelton’s young career, as he broke the Top 10 for the first time earlier this year<\/a>, and victory would see the American rise to a career-high #6 in the world. Shelton is peaking just at the right time, as we edge closer to his home Slam, the US Open<\/a>, and if he wasn’t already an outside contender, then victory against Khachanov would certainly make sure he is.<\/p>\n

Karen Khachanov: An Unlikely Finalist<\/h3>\n

Since the format’s introduction in 1990, Khachanov holds the record for the longest gap of any player between two Masters 1000 finals, at just shy of seven years. After the Russian defeated a certain Novak Djokovic in the Paris Masters back in 2018, Khachanov finally returns to a Masters final after saving a match point in the semifinal against top seed Alexander Zverev.<\/p>\n

After a deep run at Wimbledon, in which he came from two sets down twice, the 29-year-old has continued his solid form into the hard court swing. Should he win his second Masters title, he will jump to 10th in the Live Rankings, making him a genuine contender to reach the ATP Finals in Turin later this year.<\/p>\n

Before the tournament began, not many people would have had him to make the final. Currently at World #16, he has defeated two players ranked higher than him on the way to the final–one being Zverev, where he came back from the brink to get revenge for the Olympic final four years ago.<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a>