Ben Shelton Overcomes Early Struggles to Advance in U.S. Open

Under the bright, unforgiving lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium, Ben Shelton opened his U.S. Open campaign looking nothing like a man tipped to end a two-decade American drought.

He looked rattled.

The eighth seed was thrashed 6-1 in a 26-minute first set by Tallon Griekspoor, spraying 14 unforced errors, double-faulting twice and managing to hold serve just once. The Dutchman, fresh off a statement win over top seed Alexander Zverev in Montreal earlier this month, walked around the baseline as if he owned the place.

Shelton looked like a tenant on borrowed time.

Then the match turned.

“I started off a little bit nervous tonight, but I found my rhythm at some point through the second set,” Shelton said afterward, a simple explanation for a drastic shift.

Once he settled, the top American in the men’s draw began to look like the man who successfully defended his Canadian Open title and arrived in New York carrying real momentum, despite a patchy year at the Grand Slams.

The second set was a complete inversion of the first. Shelton straightened out his footwork, tightened his groundstrokes and, crucially, rediscovered his serve. The left-hander began hitting his spots, opening up the court and dragging Griekspoor into uncomfortable positions. The breaks came in a rush — three of them — as Shelton ran away with the set 6-1.

Griekspoor, who thrives on taking the ball early and dictating, suddenly found himself reacting instead of attacking.

“Obviously, a lot of credit to Tallon, he's a good player to play, he doesn’t give you a lot of rhythm,” Shelton said. “He has an attacking game style and I found things really difficult for the first set tonight.”

The third set felt like the real battle. Griekspoor steadied, dug back into the baseline exchanges and matched Shelton stride for stride on serve. Neither man blinked through the first 12 games, and the set moved inevitably to a tiebreak that would either restore the Dutchman’s early authority or confirm Shelton’s resurgence.

The pressure told on Griekspoor.

His forehand, so clean early on, began to leak errors at key moments. The serve that had anchored his first-set dominance lost its edge. By the time the breaker reached its business end, the Dutchman’s sixth double fault of the match handed Shelton the set 7-6(3) and, with it, a grip on the contest he would not loosen.

From there, Shelton accelerated.

The fourth set was a statement. He stormed out to a 4-0 lead, bullying points with his first serve and stepping inside the baseline to finish rallies on his terms. Griekspoor’s shoulders sagged; the belief from that blistering opening half-hour had long gone. Shelton, now brimming with confidence, closed out the set 6-2 to complete a 1-6 6-1 7-6(3) 6-2 victory that looked wildly unlikely early in the night.

For a 23-year-old still chasing his first Grand Slam title, the performance offered both a warning and a reminder. He cannot afford many starts like this if he wants to become the first American man since 2003 to lift the trophy in New York. But once he settles, once the nerves burn off and the serve starts to bite, he looks every inch a contender.

Next comes Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz in the second round — a step up in serving firepower and a serious test of whether this opening-night escape was a blip, or the beginning of a deep run on home soil.