Ben Shelton has endured a turbulent few months on the ATP circuit.
The American, ranked sixth on the Tour, has struggled to locate his best form since winning the Munich Open title in April.
Shelton has been upset in the early rounds of multiple high-profile events over the past few months, losing to Daniel Altmaier, Nikoloz Basilashvili, and Raphael Collignon.
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Shelton’s woes came to a head at Wimbledon, where he lost to world number 140 Otto Virtanen in the first round.
After demonstrating poor recent form – and with so many points to defend in the next two months – Shelton needs to improve his form quickly or risk having an undesired seeding at the US Open.
Ben Shelton must prevent a rankings drop ahead of the US Open
There are very few points separating those ranked five through 10 on the ATP Tour.
Alex de Minaur [fifth] and Taylor Fritz [10th], are separated by only 745 points.
Moreover, only 300 points separate Ben Shelton in sixth and Flavio Cobolli in ninth.
| 1 | Jannik Sinner | 13,450 | |||||||
| 2 | Alexander Zverev | 8,480 | |||||||
| 3 | Carlos Alcaraz | 8,160 | |||||||
| 4 | Felix Auger-Aliassime | 4,740 | |||||||
| 5 | Alex de Minaur | 4,110 | |||||||
| 6 | Ben Shelton | 3,770 | |||||||
| 7 | Novak Djokovic | 3,760 | |||||||
| 8 | Daniil Medvedev | 3,670 | |||||||
| 9 | Flavio Cobolli | 3,460 | |||||||
| 10 | Taylor Fritz | 3,365 | |||||||
Shelton is at risk of falling out of the top eight seeded positions for the US Open.
Last year, Shelton won the Canadian Open, reached the semi-finals in Washington, and made a quarter-final appearance in Cincinnati.
He is now defending 1,400 ATP points across those events.
If Shelton were to suffer more early exits and lose a significant amount of these points, he may fall outside of the top-eight seeds for the US Open.
Doing so would almost certainly reduce the American’s chances of emerging victorious in New York.
This is because seeds ranked eight through 16 are scheduled to play a top-eight seed in the fourth round; rather than in the semi-finals.
How did Ben Shelton perform at the 2025 US Open?
Shelton began his 2025 US Open campaign by beating Ignacio Buse and Pablo Carreno Busta in straight sets.
Disaster then struck in the third round.
Shelton was forced to retire from his contest against Adrian Mannarino – with the score level a two sets apiece – after suffering a serious shoulder injury.
The American told his coaching box it was the “worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life.”
“Usually I’ll play through anything and just kind of find a way. And whether it’s sickness or injury, if I can stay out there, I can stay out there,” Shelton said during his post-match media duties.
“I never felt anything like this before.”
