My Wimbledon: Ben Shelton

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/ben-shelton/s0s1/overview'Ben Shelton/a is set to make his second appearance at a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a, having experienced his first taste of the grass-court major last summer./p

pThe 21-year-old American, who faces Italian qualifier a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/mattia-bellucci/b0gg/overview'Mattia Bellucci/a in the first round, caught up with ATPTour.com before this year's event to discuss his early memories of watching The Championships, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a traditions, the stories of his dad a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/bryan-shelton/s380/overview'Bryan Shelton/a playing at the major and much more.../p

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pstrongWhat is your first memory of watchingnbsp;a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a?/strongbr /

The memory that's clearest to me is probably the 2019 final between Novak and Roger. It was probably the first time I had the attention span to watch a five-set match. Irsquo;d say when I was younger, I probably wasn't as interested in watching tennis or watching some tennis matches. But that final really grabbed me./p

pstrongWhat are your first memories of playingnbsp;a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a?/strongbr /

I got an opportunity to practise for a week at a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a before playing Queenrsquo;s last year. It was a great experience for me, seeing the site kind of empty. Then when I got back from playing the tournament in Mallorca, the site was full, the tournament was getting started, it was a completely different feel.

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pstrongWhat were your early thoughts about the aura of the venue?/strongbr /

I always think it's cool when you're able to see two sides of the tournament. The more closed-off side, which feels exclusive, like no one else is there. I quite like that as well, the week before. You can walk around and it is chill and you really get to see the site./p

pThen when match day is there, you see the sea of people, ready and excited to watch the tennis. I think that is the coolest part for me and the buzz you get at a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a is the best./p

pstrongWhat is your favouritenbsp;a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a tradition and why?/strongbr /

I love the all-white clothing. I think it's great when tournaments are unique and have their own thing. I think a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a does a great job of that. Obviously, they're the one Grand Slam that's still on grass./p

pThree of the Grand Slams used to be on grass. Now two of them have gone away from it. We still have one Grass-Court major. The all-white makes a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a unique and traditional and really in touch with our tennis ancestors. I really enjoy it./p

pstrongYour dad, Bryan, reached the fourth round at a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a in 1994. Have you talked to him about that experience and seen any footage of him playing at a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a?/strongbr /

I think it was really cool because there's not a lot of tape that I've seen of my dad playing, but you can find a few of his matches for that year at a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a. They are the matches that I've watched. Obviously he was playing at a really, really high level that week, so it was cool to kind of see some of his top-end tennis and speak to him about it after./p

pstrongWhat is your favourite thing about playing on grass?/strongbr /

I think there are a lot of things to learn on grass. I didnrsquo;t start playing on grass until so late in my tennis development and kind of developing a game style having never played on grass before. There's a bunch of things to learn and develop that have to do with movement, play style and things that I think that I'm learning and growing every single day. The journey just continues for me after a good start./p

pI think that it's a surface where I could do really well and have some great success. But I haven't done anything yet. I haven't proved myself on the surface yet./p

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