Florida Tennis: Ben Shelton hopes to keep momentum going at Wimbledon

When we last checked in on former Florida tennis star Ben Shelton, he had just finished an improbable run to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open. At just 20 years old, Shelton seemed poised to be the next breakout star of American tennis.

His run of play since the Australian Open has not been quite as great, but he hopes to keep his solid start in London going to make another memorable run.

Florida Tennis: On the grass courts

If you remove his run at the Australian Open, Shelton has a record of 5-14 on the ATP tour this season. He was bounced from the first round of the French Open last month, and his best result was a semi-final appearance at the Sardegna Open in Cagliari, Italy.

He is still ranked 36th in the world and is seeded 32nd at Wimbledon.

He started out his match yesterday against Taro Daniel of Japan extremely strong. Shelton won the first set 6-4 and was leading the second set 4-2 before play was halted due to rain and did not resume.

The match is scheduled to resume at 6 AM Eastern Time on Wednesday.

If Shelton can pull off the victory, he would be favored in his second-round match as well when he takes on the winner of American Maxime Cressy and Serbian Laslo Djere. Neither of those players is ranked.

Should Shelton make it to the third round, the spotlight would grow exponentially as he would run into either tennis star Andy Murray or Stefanos Tsitsipas, the fifth-ranked player in the world.

And even if Shelton’s run in London ended in the third round, the more he can advance in major tournaments and square off against top-tier competition, the more he himself can gain confidence as he is just starting his professional career.

Plus, the more Florida tennis and the Gator Chomp can be represented on the global stage, the better.