The Ben Shelton effect transcends tennis as Remco Evenepoel mimics the American trademark phone call celebration
Remco was competing at the second edition of the Figueira Champions Classic.
(L) Ben Shelton; (R) Remco Evenepoel (Via Imago/screengrab)
Belgian cyclist Remco Evenepoel recently mimicked American tennis player Ben Shelton‘s phone call celebration after victory at the 2024 Figueira Champions Classic. The dialed-in celebration became Ben Shelton’s trademark after defeating Frances Tiafoe in the quarterfinals of the 2023 US Open.
Remco competed at the second edition of the Figueira Champions Classic, as part of the Soudal-QuickStep UCI World Team. The Cyclist was victorious at the single-day cycling race, finishing in style in a 52km run. It took four hours, 42 minutes, and 25 seconds, including a minute 48 seconds lead over Vito Braet in second place.
Once Remco got to the finish line, he mimicked American tennis star Ben Shelton’s dialed-in celebration in style, to the applaud of the fans, following his dominant display.
In September last year, Shelton revealed the reason for his dialed-in celebration after beating Frances Tiafoe. The 21-year-old said the trademark was the signature of one of his close friends Grant Holloway, an Olympian and three times world champion. They both became friends at the University of Florida.
Ben Shelton lost to Tommy Paul at the 2024 Dallas Open
Shelton fell to an embarrassing loss against World No. 12 Tommy Paul in the semifinals of the Dallas Open. Paul defeated fellow American 6-2, 6-4 to reach the final, where he won his second ATP Tour title.
World No.15 Shelton was nowhere near an exceptional Tommy Paul, as Paul won 27 of 37 first serve points and 14 of 22 of his second serve, ending a six-match losing streak against Top-20 opponents.
These courts helped me a little bit. They’re not jumping quite as high as some of the other courts we’ve played on. Kept the ball in my strike zone a little bit more. Didn’t serve as well as I would have liked to but somehow squeaked out a lot of those service games so that was huge.Paul said
Paul’s only ATP title was in the 2021 Stockholm Open. The American lost in two tour finals last year at Acapulco and Eastbourne. Before the semifinal contest, Paul and Shelton’s stood at 2-2. He defeated Shelton in the quarterfinals of the 2023 Australian Open, but the 21-year-old starlet defeated him in the US Open and Tokyo.
Tommy Paul went on to win the Dallas Open title after defeating American Marcos Giron in the final.
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Nikhil Sonmali
(1112 Articles Published)