Ben Shelton has been told there are two areas of his game that need to be improved for Wimbledon.
Shelton is seen as one of the USA’s best Grand Slam contenders, with an American man not winning a major title since Andy Roddick at the 2003 US Open.
However, he did not get anywhere near winning the title in Paris, as Shelton lost in the second round of Roland Garros, which was his worst Grand Slam result in three years.
Shelton will look to put this behind him ahead of Wimbledon this year, but Coco Gauff’s former coach, Brad Gilbert, believes he needs to make a change to his game to find success at the grass court major.
Brad Gilbert tells Ben Shelton what he can do to improve his serve ahead of Wimbledon
When looking ahead to the grass court season on The Big T Podcast, Gilbert had named Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz as his three leading contenders for the Wimbledon title this year.
Gilbert was then asked about his compatriot, Shelton, who he claimed he wanted to put on his list, but did not feel like he could based on his previous Wimbledon results.
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Shelton is known for having one of the better serves on the ATP Tour, but Gilbert wants the world number five to utilise this shot even more as well as highlighting his return as a weakness.
“I would love to put him on my list, but he has never made a deep run at Wimbledon,” Gilbert said about Shelton.
“With Ben, so goes the return, so goes his game and I actually feel like he should do better on the grass, but the return has been the thing to let him down and the thing that, this is just the coach in me. I would like to see him drop 35 aces. He goes way too much to the kick, the slice, the catcher.
“If I’m over in the box, the number one side, go drop more aces, but the return if he improves that a little bit, there’s no reason why he can’t make a deep run. He could be the number four seed for Wimbledon, which would be huge. I would have him as a contender, but he’s not in my top three list at the moment.”
What is Ben Shelton’s best result at Wimbledon?
Shelton has made three previous appearances at Wimbledon, which is actually his second best Grand Slam tournament in terms of win-loss record, only behind the Australian Open.
The 23-year-old’s best result at Wimbledon came last year, where Shelton reached the quarter-finals before losing to eventual champion Sinner.
| Year | Ben Shelton’s result at Wimbledon |
| 2023 | Second Round |
| 2024 | Fourth Round |
| 2025 | Quarter-final |
Shelton’s real issue on grass has come on the ATP Tour, having only won four of his 12 matches before this year.
He will be hoping to improve his tour record on grass at the Stuttgart Open, where Shelton reached the semi-finals last year.
Shelton is also entered into the ATP 500 tournament in Halle, where he is scheduled to make his debut this year.
