Ben Shelton Bio

  • • Began playing tennis at age 10 with his father and coach, Bryan, whom he calls his "biggest inspiration."  Bryan left the Univ. of Florida after 11 years in June 2023 to travel with Ben on the ATP Tour.
    > Father reached career-high No. 55 in Pepperstone ATP Rankings, winning Newport title in 1991 and 1992.
    > “It’s become a really good situation where he doesn’t even have to tell me things and I know what he’s thinking or he knows what I’m thinking,” Shelton said of his father, who was also his college coach. “He’s really helped me work on developing my game and not worry about quick success, but being in it for the long run.”
  • • Clinched 2021 NCAA men's team title for University of Florida and added 2022 NCAA singles title before turning pro in June 2022.
  • • Says that competing for Gators was a huge success and an important part of his development.
  • • Taking 2 online classes with UF during spring 2023 semester: entrepreneurship and international business.
  • • Mother, Lisa, is sister of former World No. 4 doubles player Todd Witsken; sister, Emma, is a senior on University of Florida women's tennis team.
  • • Broke into Top 100 in 2022 without ever traveling outside USA. Used passport for 1st time and played qualifying at 2023 Adelaide-1.
  • • Favourite shot is serve, surface is hard, tournament is US Open and city on tour is New York.
  • • Tennis idol is Roger Federer.
  • • Also enjoys track-and-field and playing pick-up basketball, but says that his secret talent is throwing a football. Played quarterback before focusing on tennis.
  • • "Going into the end of middle school, there were a lot of huge kids in football, and I hadn’t really hit my growth spurt yet," Shelton told The New York Times. "I was maybe a little tired of getting bashed up all the time.”
  • • Hero is former NFL wide receiver Calvin Johnson and favourite superhero is Iron Man.
  • • Favourite actor is Damson Idris, TV show is Suits and movie is Top Gun: Maverick.
  • • Lists Rigatoni Bolognese as his favourite food and ice cream as his guilty pleasure.
  • • Favourite book is The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton and musician is A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie.
  • • Supports Gainesville-based charity Aces in Motion, an after-school youth development program that puts tennis' best practices in action.
  • • Dream job is working on Wall Street and favourite school subject is math.
  • • Says that his best quality is passion and worst is laziness.
     

Biographical information from ATP. Information might not be up to date.


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