In reaching US Open semis, Ben Shelton shows why he may be America's next men's tennis superstar

NEW YORK — The wildest ride in tennis is a 20-year-old American from Atlanta via Gainesville, Florida, with a booming serve, a flair for showmanship and a ravenous appetite for risk. 

But at the end of the day, Ben Shelton is now a US Open semifinalist — and a potential superstar. After beating fellow American and No. 10 seed Frances Tiafoe 6-2, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2 under the lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium, he will now face tennis’ ultimate test Friday against 23-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic.

“It doesn’t get much better than that,” Shelton said. 

Though Tiafoe came in as the better-known player and fan favorite thanks to his semifinal run here last year, the 6-foot-4 Shelton began drawing gasps right away for his explosive athleticism and willingness to push the limits of a radar gun that was clocking many of his serves in the 130 and even 140 mph range. 

But more importantly, he dictated play from the first ball and made Tiafoe deeply uncomfortable with the depth and power of his shots. In some ways, Shelton’s most difficult opponent Tuesday was his temptation to play too big in certain moments, losing the second set and nearly the third when his discipline fell apart. 

In fact, it appeared Shelton had blown the crucial tiebreaker when he worked hard to get to 6-5, within one point of the set, only to double fault on consecutive points and hand Tiafoe the advantage. 

But Shelton, playing true to his go-for-broke identity, smoked a massive forehand — his best of the entire match — that nicked the right sideline and left Tiafoe stunned with no attempt to retrieve it.

“Sometimes you've got to shut off the brain, close your eyes and just swing,” said Shelton, who closed out the tiebreaker with two solid points from there. “Maybe there was a little bit of that down set point but it ended up working out. Some may say clutch, but I don't know about all that.”

If the tiebreaker was more luck than clutch, what followed certainly showed that he can be a good closer. He immediately broke serve to open the fourth set and raced away without even a hint of trouble, ripping away any hope of a Tiafoe comeback. 

Shelton, who won the NCAA men’s singles championship at Florida in 2022, turned pro a year ago and immediately made a splash by making the Australian Open quarterfinals in January. 

But that run, aided by a soft draw, in some ways made his life on tour more difficult. With a big target on his back and trying to navigate new tournaments and unfamiliar surfaces in Europe, Shelton did not win back-to-back matches at the ATP level until he arrived in New York. 

But in this tournament, Shelton has shown why so many experts consider him the best American prospect to come along in many years — and why he still has significant upside that hasn't been realized. 

But for as raw as many of his skills are, Shelton has clearly made some big improvements in this rookie year. The most notable has been his return of serve, which had been holding him back throughout the year but is coming along right on time. 

It was the shot that made the biggest difference against Tiafoe, as Shelton was consistently able to produce quality returns and get into rallies where he was the better player. He ultimately broke Tiafoe seven times, winning 50% of the points on second serve and 37% on Tiafoe’s first serve.

This match will be a bitter disappointment for Tiafoe, who vowed after his five-set loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals last year that he would one day win this tournament. And it was setting up to be a special night for him in the first-ever matchup between two African-American men this deep in the US Open. 

“I think it's a big night for people of color looking up to Ben and I knowing they can be in these positions," Tiafoe said in his pre-match interview on ESPN.

But at the end of the night, Shelton’s relentless energy and high-voltage game looked like the stuff that could eventually make him the first American man to win a Grand Slam since Andy Roddick in 2003.