{"id":32065,"date":"2025-07-02T07:59:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T07:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/32065\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T07:59:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T07:59:12","slug":"boris-becker-pinpoints-the-fundamental-problem-with-ben-sheltons-game-and-claims-its-simply-not-good-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/32065\/","title":{"rendered":"Boris Becker pinpoints the ‘fundamental’ problem with Ben Shelton\u2019s game and claims ‘it’s ‘simply not good enough’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ben Shelton enjoyed a solid start to his 2025 season, but headed to Wimbledon on a two-match losing streak.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kicking off his grass-court campaign in fine form, Shelton qualified for the Stuttgart Open<\/a> semi-finals, where he came up short against Alexander Zverev.<\/p>\n

His run to the last four saw him debut in the ATP<\/a> top ten, joining his fellow Americans Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul.<\/p>\n

However, he was unable to carry that momentum through to Queen\u2019s, as Shelton<\/a> lost to Arthur Rinderknech in the first round.<\/p>\n

\"BenPhoto by ADRIAN DENNIS\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Suffering another defeat, Shelton was beaten by Learner Tien<\/a> 4-6, 6-7, in his opening match at the Mallorca Championships.<\/p>\n

With the 22-year-old struggling on grass, two German tennis legends highlighted the biggest issue he is currently facing.<\/p>\n

Boris Becker says Ben Shelton hits the ball \u2018too late\u2019 and with \u2018too much topspin\u2019 on grass<\/p>\n

During the Becker Petkovic podcast, six-time Grand Slam champion Boris Becker<\/a> shared his thoughts on Shelton\u2019s grass-court troubles.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSo overall, first of all, the basics, he is 1.95m tall, a top athlete, left-handed, a real thoroughbred athlete. On grass, a dream,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think he fundamentally hasn\u2019t found his game yet. I mean, at the elite level, he\u2019s world number 10, so he can play tennis. But I actually see him in the top five.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has an incredibly high loop. That\u2019s why he often hits too late, he also has too much topspin for my taste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becker explained why Shelton\u2019s forehand is being exposed on grass more than on clay or hard courts.<\/p>\n

\"BorisPhoto by Stefan Matzke \u2013 sampics\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cHe still needs to work on his forehand, and on grass, due to the speed of the game, he doesn\u2019t have the time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why he often hits it on the frame. Needing time to find the forehand in the latter rounds is simply not good enough; that\u2019s why you usually lose, but the foundation is there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becker\u2019s co-host, Andrea Petkovic<\/a>, was keen to weigh in with her thoughts, as she questioned whether Shelton\u2019s backswing is \u2018too big\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI commented on the match between Ben Shelton and Jannik Sinner last year. That was, I think, the fourth round of Wimbledon. What I noticed, when someone like Jannik [Sinner] takes the ball very early on the line and plays very fast, then Ben Shelton is too late with his forehand,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, the forehand is his weapon, but he has this huge backswing. I don\u2019t know, technically, whether it\u2019s almost too big. <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, when he hits it well, when he has it on his racket, then of course, it\u2019s an absolute bomb.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BenPhoto by Christian Kaspar-Bartke\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Petkovic believes Shelton\u2019s forehand is costing him against the very best players on the ATP Tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI already found against [Alexander] Zverev in Stuttgart, when he plays against the top players, they get in there quickly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially when he\u2019s nervous or tired, he plays half of his forehands [all over the place].<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t take out a bit and play in first [gear], but instead he just kept hacking at it. Against Jannik last year, he needed 2.5 sets to find his rhythm on the forehand, then he became really dangerous. Then it went to a tiebreak and Jannik brought it home.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut 2.5 sets to find a forehand is just too long against the best in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shelton lost to Sinner<\/a> in three sets, 2-6, 4-6, 6-7 [9-11] at Wimbledon in 2024, coming up short against the number one seed.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Hoping for a better showing this time around, Shelton picked up a straight-sets win in his first-round match.<\/p>\n

Ben Shelton reacts after winning \u2018tricky\u2019 first-round match at Wimbledon<\/p>\n

Coming through in three sets, Shelton beat Australia\u2019s Alex Bolt 6-4, 7-6, 7-6, to book his place in round two.<\/p>\n

During his post-match interview, Shelton thanked the crowd and admitted he was happy to get the job done quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally happy, every time you get to play here at Wimbledon, it\u2019s an honor, it\u2019s an honor to play in front of you guys, I appreciate everyone for coming out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a lot of five-set matches here last year, my first three matches were all five sets, it almost killed me. So to get through in three sets in the first round, I\u2019m really happy. Especially against a guy like him, came through qualies, playing great on grass. It\u2019s never an easy matchup; there are no easy matchups here at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really excited that I gave myself another opportunity to play in front of you guys, and I hope you guys are going to come back on Thursday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BenPhoto by Dan Istitene\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Explaining how difficult it was playing another left-hander, Shelton thanked the crowd once more, as he came close to naming Wimbledon as his favorite Grand Slam tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really difficult. I lost to a lefty on grass last week. It\u2019s always tricky with the different spin, he has a live arm, he can make the ball move in a lot of different ways, and as I said, he\u2019s really accustomed to the grass, so there are a lot of challenges playing a guy like him here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the crowd helps a lot, I love playing at the Grand Slams, it\u2019s my favorite\u2026 one of my four favorite tournaments, I can\u2019t do my home Slam that dirty.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut one of my favorites 100%, I love playing here every year, there\u2019s a lot of excitement, a lot of tension, but really happy with the way I played.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shelton will now rest up ahead of his second-round match with Rinky Hijikata on Thursday, July 3.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Shelton enjoyed a solid start to his 2025 season, but headed to Wimbledon on a two-match losing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":32066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[1479,21485,7936,62,1464,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-32065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp","9":"tag-ben-shelton","10":"tag-boris-becker","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114782585845856022","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}