Tout roule pour Ben Shelton à l'Open d'Australie 2025. Après sa victoire en trois sets contre son compatriote Brandon Nakashima, l'Américain a su faire plier l'Espagnol Pablo Carreno Busta, 6-3, 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-4, ce jeudi au deuxième tour. Quart de finaliste en 2023, le joueur de 22 ans apprécie les conditions australiennes et pourrait faire des dégâts. Il aura d'ailleurs un beau test face à Lorenzo Musetti pour une place en deuxième semaine. En conférence de presse, Shelton a été interrogé sur les avantages et les inconvénients d'être gaucher. Et il n'a pas eu de mal à trouver le plus grand inconvénient, même s'il y voit également un certain avantage.
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00:00Yeah, it was a tough one, you know, playing against a guy who's got a lot of experience,
00:10a lot of success in slams.
00:12Someone who, you know, is not afraid to go the distance.
00:14I thought I did a great job of managing myself out there.
00:18It wasn't easy and yeah, happy to get that one down in four sets.
00:23Questions please.
00:25Holly?
00:26Can I ask you to explain what you mean by managing yourself?
00:32Yeah, when you're on a roll like that, two sets to love, pretty clinical by one break
00:40in the first and two breaks in the second.
00:44To go through a third set, not get broken and then still lose a set in a tiebreaker
00:50is not easy.
00:53I felt like he gained a lot of momentum.
00:55I thought he played a pretty flawless third set.
00:59Was doing a lot of things really, really well and to deepen the fourth as well.
01:04So that momentum is sometimes tough to manage, tough to deal with when a guy gets on a roll
01:10like that.
01:11You see like two sets to love, two sets to one, two sets to all, you're in a dogfight
01:16in the fifth and I was just happy with the way I executed late in the fourth to put it
01:21away.
01:23Perfect.
01:24Does having so many American men playing well take a bit of pressure off of you and do you
01:30keep up with how your countrymen are performing here at the A.O.?
01:32No, I wouldn't say it takes pressure off.
01:36You know, everyone's playing for themselves here.
01:40I think there's a healthy competition between us.
01:43I obviously love to see those guys do well and yeah, it's a lot of fun to be in this
01:51era of American tennis, you know, most likely after this tournament we'll have at least
01:56two guys in the top ten and there's a lot more coming.
02:03For me, I wouldn't say that it's, I don't really watch anyone else closely during the
02:09tournaments.
02:10Yeah, I'll check the scores, watch highlights from my friends' matches every once in a while,
02:15but I'm more or less just focused on myself.
02:19What did you learn today?
02:23That's a funny question.
02:25What did I learn today?
02:32Learned how to serve, actually.
02:33You learned how to serve?
02:35Yeah, compared from round one to two, I think I learned how to serve, yeah.
02:41Anything from playing a player like him?
02:45From playing a player like him, yeah, I learned that, you know, I definitely would not have
02:51wanted to see that guy in his prime.
02:53And I'm not saying that he couldn't get back to that same level because he showed some
02:58stuff today that was really, really tricky to deal with, but obviously I was a young
03:03kid watching him in the quarters and semis of slams when I'm sitting on the couch at
03:10home and definitely started seeing some flashbacks today, especially in that third set.
03:19I think the way that he stays composed and can counterpunch, can play aggressive from
03:27the baseline but patiently aggressive and not overhit, but just make you feel like the
03:33court is so big and you have a lot of ground to cover.
03:39I thought those were all things that he did a great job of and I guess, yeah, you could
03:45say I learned.
03:46Last two, Charlie and Howard.
03:48How much do you care or worry about head-to-head records when you're playing someone like,
03:55I think Lorenzo has won the previous two times you've played.
03:58Does that bother you?
03:59Does that affect how you prepare?
04:01Do you try and do things differently?
04:03Honestly, win or lose, I'm trying to learn something from the last match I played.
04:10If you won the match before, you know that the guy's going to try to do something different
04:15to flip the script.
04:18Obviously, if you lost the match, you're the guy who's got to change something up.
04:27So I don't really mind either way.
04:30Obviously, you want to look at things that worked when you played, look at things that
04:37didn't work that you want to change.
04:39I think also for me, being in a Grand Slam is a different game.
04:44I can't as much compare playing guys in two out of three sets to three out of five because
04:49it's a different beast.
04:50It's where I play my best tennis.
04:53So that's not something that I look at as much.
04:57Have other guys in the locker room and compare notes about things they might have done against
05:03an upcoming opponent?
05:05In the locker room?
05:06Yeah.
05:11What advantages or disadvantages are there that you find being left-handed in this sport?
05:20You can't get a practice.
05:22It's impossible.
05:24Except for when the draw comes out and they play Draper, Shapo, or Hugo Humbert.
05:32Then I get to look.
05:33But other than that, people don't want to practice with you as much.
05:38For me, I don't mind.
05:39I'll hit with a righty, a lefty, short guy, tall guy, serve bot, grinder.
05:44It doesn't really matter.
05:47The guys on tour are very particular.
05:50Either players or coaches are very particular about who they practice with.
05:54They're like, big serve, lefty, that's two strikes against you.
05:59So finding hits can be difficult.
06:02I'd say, at the same time, people don't want to hit with a lefty so they don't see your
06:08style of game as much.
06:10So I go out, I play against somebody who's said no to practicing with me the last four
06:15times.
06:16Well, at least he hasn't seen my serve.
06:19Pros and cons, for sure.