Ben Shelton Called His Shot Before Finishing Match in 69 Seconds

Ben Shelton’s match was called due to darkness on Thursday night. It didn’t take him long to clean up on Friday.

Ben Shelton of the United States celebrates winning his match against Alex Bolt of Australia. / Susan Mullane-Imagn Images

Friday was a somewhat awkward day for Ben Shelton at Wimbledon.

On Thursday night, Shelton’s match against Rinky Hijikata was called due to darkness, despite Shelton being set to serve for the match at that moment. The call was especially frustrating because both Shelton and Hijikata had seemingly called for a potential earlier stoppage as the light was fading, and then when the match could come to an end, that conclusion was taken from them.

Understandably, Shelton showed some frustration in the moment and despite the protestations of the crowd chanting for “one more game,” there was ultimately nothing to be done. The match would be settled on Friday morning.

When Shelton took the court again, he ended things quickly, holding serve and finishing the game in just 69 seconds to close out the match.

Speaking with media after the win, Shelton admitted that finishing things quick was a goal of his. Apparently, he had called his shot with the umpire when the decision to suspend the match was made.

“[The umpire] said that it was a five-minute warning until the Hawkeye was going down, and that was including the changeover, so there wouldn’t be enough time to complete the game,” Shelton said. “I was telling him I only need 60 seconds. That’s kind of what my goal was when I went out there today.”

The call to suspend the match certainly left Shelton in a tough spot. He had not dropped serve all match, and was clearly confident he could beat the clock on one more service game if given the opportunity. Instead, he had to come back on Friday morning, and while he was able to finish off the match as expected, one of the most fascinating aspects of tennis is that depending on how that game broke, Shelton had no idea if he would be on the court for one minute or two hours.

It worked out. Shelton secured the win in straight sets 6–2, 7–5, 6–4 to secure his spot in the third round where he will face off against Márton Fucsovics.

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