American Ben Shelton Retires From U.S. Open Due to Shoulder Injury

Ben Shelton was forced to to retire against Frenchman Adrian Mannarino with the match tied at 2–2.

Ben Shelton’s run at the U.S. Open came to an unfortunate end on Friday. / Sarah Stier/Getty Images

Ben Shelton’s run at the U.S. Open came to an abrupt end on Friday after he was forced to retire from his match against Frenchman Adrian Mannarino as they were preparing to head to a fifth set.

Shelton suffered a shoulder injury at some point during the match, and while he received treatment from the on-court physios, he was unable to play out the final set.

After the fourth set, Shelton had approached his father and coach, who appeared to signal to his son that it was not worth pushing through the injury to continue the match.

No. 6 Ben Shelton retires with an apparent shoulder injury after playing four sets of his third round match at the US Open.

Adrian Mannarino is on to the fourth round. pic.twitter.com/8fmCQ0dsTL

— ESPN (@espn) August 29, 2025

Shelton was understandably heartbroken by the whole situation. Entering the tournament as the No. 6 player in the world, Shelton was one of America’s best hopes of producing a homegrown winner on the men’s side of the U.S. Open for the first time in two decades. Instead, Shelton will look to recover and get healthy for whenever he is able to make it back to the court, and his goal of securing a U.S. Open title will have to wait at least one more year.

With the win, Mannarino advances to the fourth round of the tournament, the deepest U.S. Open run of his career.

---

More on Sports Illustrated

feed