{"id":89846,"date":"2025-08-29T17:13:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T21:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=89846"},"modified":"2025-08-29T17:13:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T21:13:22","slug":"ben-shelton-injury-us-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/08\/29\/ben-shelton-injury-us-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Shelton Retires with Injury at US Open"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\">Ben Shelton\u2019s 2025 US Open campaign ended in heartbreak when the 22-year-old American was forced to retire in the fifth set of his third-round clash with Adrian Mannarino.<\/p>\n<h4 data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\">A Promising Battle Cut Short<\/h4>\n<p data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\">Shelton, seeded No. 6 and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/08\/08\/ben-shelton-favorite-us-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">one of the brightest young stars in American tennis<\/a>, started the contest in fine form. Backed by the New York crowd, he powered through the opening set 6\u20133, showcasing his trademark serve and fearless shot-making.<\/p>\n<p>Mannarino, the experienced Frenchman, responded with his trademark steadiness in the second set, using his consistency and flat hitting to redirect pace to frustrate Shelton. The American\u2019s momentum dipped, and Mannarino leveled the match at one set all.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"214\" data-end=\"527\">Determined to reassert himself, Shelton dug deep in the third. At set point, he took a nasty fall chasing down a ball but still managed to win the rally, sealing the set and moving ahead two sets to one. The Ashe Stadium crowd erupted as he pumped his fist, showing his trademark fire even through visible pain.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Set point MADNESS \ud83e\udd2f <\/p>\n<p>How did Ben pull that off?? <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fwWn2lAiyN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/fwWn2lAiyN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; US Open Tennis (@usopen) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/usopen\/status\/1961518821421822279?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 29, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\">But the physical toll soon became clear. With his shoulder clearly bothering him, Shelton\u2019s serve lost its usual pop, and his forehand lacked its trademark firepower. Mannarino capitalized, dictating rallies with ease and taking the fourth set to force a decider. By this stage, Shelton was grimacing after nearly every point, his body language betraying the struggle to generate pace and control from his upper body.<\/p>\n<p>At the changeover before the fifth set, Shelton was unable to continue. The retirement handed Mannarino the victory, while the Ashe Stadium crowd offered warm applause to a player who had given everything despite his injury.<\/p>\n<p>For Shelton, the exit is a cruel blow. He had entered the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/category\/us-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">US Open<\/a> full of confidence after a strong summer swing and looked poised to build on that momentum to make a push toward Turin. Instead, he leaves with questions surrounding his fitness and recovery timeline.<\/p>\n<p><a  id=\"IBB6ZtmHS8Bi7Ypo2T1n9A\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2232441714\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'IBB6ZtmHS8Bi7Ypo2T1n9A',sig:'LrVLvj_Jv50nr_LiPIwANaQdvJyJ2NL3eNTtgi0iHzw=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2232441714',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>American fans, who have embraced Shelton\u2019s energy and fearless style, will be hoping the shoulder setback is not a long-term issue. His electrifying game has made him one of the most exciting young talents on tour, and the tennis world will be eagerly awaiting his return.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ben Shelton\u2019s 2025 US Open campaign ended in heartbreak when the 22-year-old American was forced to retire in the fifth set of his third-round clash with Adrian Mannarino. A Promising Battle Cut Short Shelton, seeded No. 6 and one of the brightest young stars in American tennis, started the contest in fine form. Backed by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5608,"featured_media":61211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,9,8],"tags":[42770,1877,16662],"class_list":["post-89846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atp","category-featured","category-news","category-us-open","tag-2025-us-open","tag-adrian-mannarino","tag-ben-shelton"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5608"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89846"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89851,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89846\/revisions\/89851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}