“I’m dialed in!” Ben Shelton breaks down his ‘phone celebration’ after monumental win over Frances Tiafoe at US Open which resulted in extreme backlash

Shelton becomes the youngest men's US Open semi-finalist in 30 years.

“I’m dialed in!” Ben Shelton breaks down his ‘phone celebration’ after monumental win over Frances Tiafoe at US Open which resulted in extreme backlash

Ben Shelton (Credits:USTA)

20-year-old American Ben Shelton traced bullets on his serves as he got past his American counterpart Frances Tiafoe in the quarterfinal of the US Open 2023. The southpaw defeated the 10th seed 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-2 and became the youngest American men’s tennis player to reach the final four in New York in 30 years.

Playing just his fifth career Grand Slam, Shelton has reached the semi-final for the first time after failing at the quarter-final stage in the Australian Open earlier this year. Surprisingly, he has not managed to string consecutive victories apart from Grand Slams this year.

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After serving out the match, the 20-year-old pulled off his trademark dialed-in celebration. Breaking down his celebration in the post-match press conference, Shelton said, “For me, it’s kind of like I’m saying I’m dialed in. That’s what it is for me. I’m really close friends with a lot track and field athletes who train at the University of Florida. One in particular, Grant Holloway, who’s won the World Championships like three years in a row now—that’s kind of his signature thing. He just won the world championships, so congrats to him.”

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Shelton’s aggressive and fearless style was on full display when he was down a set point in the third set tie-break. Returning Tiafoe’s second serve at 6-7 down in the tie break, he made space for himself to fire a rip-snorter of a left-handed forehand down the line. Such was the pace of the shot that the American No. 2 stayed glued to the court.

“Sometimes you have to shut off the brain, close the eyes, and just swing,” Shelton said of that moment. “Maybe there was a little bit of that down set point, but it ended up working out,” the young American added. The youngster finished with 50 winners to Tiafoe’s 33 and landed 14 aces to deny his compatriot a second successive year of reaching the semi-finals in New York.

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Ben Shelton banks on crowd support for semi-final encounter against Novak Djokovic

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Arthur Ashe Stadium (Credits : USTA)

Next up, Shelton is scheduled to play 23-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic in the semi-final match at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The new men’s World No. 1 defeated American No. 1 Taylor Fritz to reach his 47th major semi-final in his quest for a 10th final and fourth title at the US Open.

“It doesn’t get much better than that,” Shelton said talking about the upcoming encounter. “It’s been tough the last two matches, I’ve been playing Americans. But hopefully you guys bring it for me two nights from now?” Shelton defeated the 14th-seeded American Tommy Paul in the round of 16.

With the quarterfinal win, the 20-year-old American is guaranteed a spot in the top 20 of the ATP rankings.

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