John McEnroe said that Ben Shelton had the “proverbial puncher’s chance” before his U.S. Open semifinal with Novak Djokovic. It was an understandable thing to say. Though Shelton is an explosive, powerful player, at just 20 years of age, matching Djokovic — a 23-time major champion who is likely the best player of all time — is absurdly difficult.
But McEnroe’s assessment didn’t quite work for me. Having a puncher’s chance is a phrase typically used in boxing. It means that even if you’re at a severe skill disadvantage, there’s still a remote possibility that you can land a perfect punch that floors your opponent. Alas, if you’re not capable of hitting a shot powerful enough to literally concuss the man on the other side of the net, the same phenomenon does not apply in tennis. Boxers can score victory with one heavy swing of the arm, tennis players need to lace a tiny ball onto the outside of a thin line for hours on end. Best-of-five, in particular, is simply too long to accurately sustain a risky game style. Pulling an upset as big as Shelton over Djokovic takes hours of improbable success, not a single defining moment. It might happen in the first game, it might happen in the third set, but that skill gap is going to make itself apparent.
In Djokovic-Shelton, Novak separated himself in the sixth game. Shelton had served some missiles in his first two service holds, but at 2-3, the serves came back, the errors flowed, and Djokovic broke easily. He followed it with a comfortable hold, and though Shelton saved four set points and had a chance to break back at 3-5, it already felt like Djokovic was impervious to Shelton’s weapons. The three-time U.S. Open champion won 16 straight service points in the opening set. He rarely bothered with groundstrokes intended to end the point — he was content to sit back, rally to the middle third of the court, and let Shelton misfire.
Shelton has a level of confidence that frequently borders on cockiness. That confidence would be mind-boggling to see in anyone, much less a 20-year-old, and it’s the main thing that differentiated Shelton from Djokovic’s typical victim in a major. Most Djokovic opponents put on a brave face pre-match, but it’s clear within a game or two that they don’t have any genuine belief that they can win. Shelton’s belief seemed to last into the second set. Maybe it was the fact that Djokovic was defending at his typically outstanding level, winning a number of highlight-reel points, or maybe it was that Shelton was misfiring frequently, but the belief seemed to slowly ooze out of the young American as well. At 1-2 in the third set, Shelton played fantastic defense and duped Djokovic with a counter-drop shot winner, marking his best effort of the match to that stage. When he celebrated with a standard fist-pump rather than the unique, demonstrative reactions that had become expected of him over the fortnight, I thought he was done.
Then, late in the third set, the energy returned. Djokovic played a loose service game. Shelton channeled Rafael Nadal with a laser of a banana forehand onto the sideline. He blasted a 145 mph serve to hold. The celebrations were out in force, the fans were roaring themselves hoarse, and Djokovic was subdued on the other side of the net.
The movie ended, of course. Djokovic stopped the slide at set point down, staying alive with a big serve, and eventually closed the match out in a tiebreak. All things considered, Djokovic didn’t show Shelton’s game much respect during the three sets. He mostly hit safe shots. For all Shelton’s serve is talked about (remember those 149 mph bombs earlier in the tournament), he was never very difficult for Djokovic to break. Djokovic didn’t even compliment Shelton’s tennis after the match. Novak hit a few tough volleys, but for the most part, it looked like he was never physically or technically tested.
So, in a weird way, Djokovic mocking Shelton’s celebration (which, whether you liked it or not — and I did — was objectively petty) might be the biggest compliment he paid the young American all night. It implied that he had been bothered by Shelton’s presence, if not his forehands and backhands. Djokovic spent most of the third set not reacting to any points, even his own brilliant shots, as if not wanting to give the heavily pro-Shelton crowd an antagonist to root against even more strongly. He even seemed tight at times, despite never being remotely in danger of losing the match. Shelton is a star, and while not every match he plays will be in front of a crowd this invested, he’ll have fans wherever he goes.
*****
I’ll admit that I don’t really like the way stardom works in sports. The goal in sports is to win, that’s what athletes train their whole lives to do, so when an athlete rockets to stardom because of their looks or nationality — or in Shelton’s case, his likability and charisma — I feel bad for other players who haven’t done anything wrong, yet don’t get the same recognition. Markéta Vondroušová is not a star despite winning Wimbledon. Iga Świątek has gotten some criticism for her personality because, in the eyes of some, she’s not marketable enough despite winning four major titles. It’s not fair.
That said, it’s hard for me to argue that Shelton’s acclaim isn’t deserved. I’m not sure that his tennis will ever be at a major-winning level — though it certainly could be, he’s just 20 — but he’s managed to share his confidence with crowds in a way I’ve rarely seen in tennis. He has enjoyed overwhelming crowd support in his entire run here, as well as at the Australian Open. His energy even quieted his equally charismatic countryman, Frances Tiafoe, during their quarterfinal. Much is made of Djokovic’s dislike of crowds that root against him, but both his mid-match tightness and his celebration after are among the biggest actual signs of crowd-related distress that I can recall from Djokovic.
People love Shelton, which is as good a reason as any for him to be a star. He has detractors, sure, but they’ll only increase the size of the discussions about him. What I learned from this tournament — and what I hope Shelton learned too — is that Ben Shelton, at 20, managed to generate enough of an on-court presence to bother the greatest player of all time more than a little bit. And, even if you don’t think much of Shelton’s game, I’d say that means he had a pretty fantastic U.S. Open.
Popcorn Tennis 
I actually like Ben Shelton’s game, and I look forward to watching him move forward with it – and with better net play, stronger backhand but keeping the passion of youth. He’s on the radar now.
And I have been over Novak for years – best description of his career: most decorated. But greatest of all time? Never, to me.
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Thanks for reading! He certainly is on the radar. And fair enough on Djokovic, it depends on how you define “greatest.” To me, it just means “best.”
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Shelton may be more ‘marketable’ but Athletes eventually will need sustained performance to speak for themselves. His perceived cockiness… at least in my opinion, he shall learn from Alcatraz, Sinner, CoCo, etc. who are bigger young stars with confidence yet maturity and respect for other great players. His behaviors are a bit different from the expected ‘etiquette on the tour’. He also has skills to improve, his bomb serve did not really bother Novak. I thought he may get a set but he did not.
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I agree in theory, but Shelton went the bulk of this year — between the Australian Open and this tournament — without winning two matches in a row on the ATP level, and he did pretty well in terms of marketing anyway. Maybe people will get tired of him in a few years if the results don’t improve, but I think that’s unlikely.
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