American Ben Shelton, the No. 10 seed, reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time Monday with a 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (1), 7-5 victory over Lorenzo Sonego — one that also secured him the family bragging rights.
Thirty-one years ago Shelton’s father and current coach, Bryan, lost 10-8 in the fifth set to Christian Bergstrom in the round of 16 at Wimbledon, in what proved the high point of his Grand Slam career.
The younger Shelton became the fourth Black American man to reach the quarterfinals at the All England Club since the Open era began, joining Arthur Ashe (three times), MaliVai Washington (1996) and Christopher Eubanks (2023).
Ashe (UCLA), Washington (Michigan) and Eubanks (Georgia Tech) all played college tennis, as did Shelton who was an NCAA singles champion at Florida.
At 22, Shelton is the youngest American man to reach the Wimbledon quarters since Andy Roddick did so at 21 in 2004.
Shelton joins No. 5 Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinals, extending a run that has seen two American men reach the last eight in five consecutive Slams. That’s the longest streak since it happened in 24 straight majors from the 1991 French Open to the 1997 Australian Open.
Shelton, who previously reached the semifinals in Melbourne and Flushing Meadows, dropped his first set of the tournament, but attacked the net more in a dominant second set before racing through a third-set tiebreak and then breaking in the final game to secure the win.
Shelton and Sonego were meeting for the third time this year at a major, with Shelton winning their previous contests at the Australian Open and French Open. This was the first time since 1984 that two men met in each of the first three majors of a season — that year, John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors played at the French, Wimbledon and US Open, with McEnroe winning all three meetings (the Australian Open at that time was held in December).
ESPN Research and Reuters contributed to this report.
