After a brilliant run to the Fourth Round at Wimbledon, Florida tennis alum [autotag]Ben Shelton[/autotag] came up short in his first match at the ATP Tour event in Atlanta, Georgia.
Shelton fell to Chinese 19-year-old Juncheng Shang for the second straight year at his hometown event event. Last year’s matchup came in the Round of 32, but Shelton earned a bye to the Round of 16 as the No. 1 seed.
The extra rest didn’t do Shelton much good. He lost in straight sets, 7-6(6), 6-4. Shang was gracious in victory and spoke highly of Shelton, who he is now 3-0 against.
“It was a really tough match,” Shang said. “The conditions are completely different from last year. The courts are much slower. But with this crowd, I really enjoy playing here. I don’t know what I did to play so well against Ben but he’s such an amazing guy, a lot of respect to him.”
Shang’s success against Shelton might be because both are lefties. He told Rough Draft Atlanta that he’s able to return lefties a lot better than righties, which is something Shelton doesn’t deal with often (or that well). It’s a hole in the young American’s game right now, but he’s always working to improve.
Up next for Shelton is the U.S. Open on Aug. 26 in New York City.
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