American Ben Shelton enjoyed a routine 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 win over Ignacio Buse in the first round of the US Open on Sunday.
For the second straight year, Shelton played the New York tournament’s opening match at Arthur Ashe Stadium. He defeated Dominic Thiem on Day 1 in 2024.
“It’s starting to feel like home for me,” the sixth-seeded Shelton said in his on-court interview. “This is the best court in tennis, my favorite place to play, favorite tournament.”
Shelton, 22, is coming off his first Masters 1000 title at Toronto, where he became the first American to win the event since Andy Roddick in 2003. Shelton squeaked out three deciding-set tiebreaks during that Toronto run, the most by any player en route to a Masters 1000 title.
He had an easier time of it Sunday against the unseeded Buse, saving all five break points he faced despite finishing with only five aces — his fewest in any major match win in his career.
Since the start of 2024, Shelton is 21-0 against unseeded opponents in Slams — the second-most such wins in that span behind only Jannik Sinner (22-0).
Shelton will have two days off before playing his second-round match Wednesday against either Pablo Carreno Busta or Pablo Llamas Ruiz.
Looking to join him in the second round is Taylor Fritz, who was playing another American, Emilio Nava, at Louis Armstrong. With Fritz seeded No. 4, this marks the first major with two American men seeded in the top eight since the 2007 US Open (No. 5 Roddick, No. 6 James Blake).
In other men’s singles results Sunday, 18th-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat Alexander Shevchenko 6-1, 6-1, 6-2. And Jakub Mensik, the No. 16 seed, got past Nicolas Jarry 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-4.
ESPN Research contributed to this report.
