Wimbledon: Ben Shelton’s Failure to Live Up to ‘Expectations’ Makes Serena Williams’ Ex-Coach Cautious of Her Predictions

Ben Shelton is ready to make his second appearance at Wimbledon this year! However, this year, just like last year, there are a lot of expectations surrounding the American regarding his Wimbledon participation. But as the event is just a few days away, Serena Williams’ former coach, recently, talked about the 21-year-old American’s not-so-great chances at Wimbledon despite possessing the sharpest weapon for grass.

In one of the recent episodes of the Racquet’s Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, the Australian coach talked about a lot of players, such as Matteo Berrettini, Denis Shapovalov, and Shelton, while critically analyzing their performances this year. Along with that, while talking about the American, she not only talked about the advantages he has on grass, but, at the same time, shared the downside of his Wimbledon participation.

She stated, “But Ben Shelton, is he the section of that beat that can he get through and, you know, really push Sinner? We had a lot of expectation for him last year at Wimbledon, he didn’t have the success. But again, he’s playing a Baluchi who might go through qualities and as you know, Sam, guys that come through qualities are playing really, really good tennis on grass. So no given that Ben will get through.”

Despite knowing that the odds are stacked against him, the young American oozes confidence as he prepares for his grass court debut. A few days ago, the ATP Tour captured the excitement of the upcoming grass-court season in a recent entertaining video that they posted on its X (previously Twitter) page. Top ATP players were asked the same question in this video: “Who’s going to win Wimbledon?”

On the other hand, the 21-year-old tennis player took the conversation with absolute confidence. He wrote, “I’m gonna choose myself as a grass court ‘dark horse.’ I think I learned a few things last year that I hope will help me this year. The grass suits my game well, and I’m excited.” However, as his anticipation builds up, he recently opened up about his favorite Wimbledon memory.

Ben Shelton’s first memory of watching Wimbledon

The 21-year-old tennis player just sat down with ATPTour.com before this year’s event to discuss his early memories of watching The Championships and witnessing the tennis legends. While Wimbledon has always been special for Shelton, he talked about watching Roger Federer go against Novak Djokovic in the 2019 finals.

He stated, “The memory that’s clearest to me is probably the 2019 final between Novak and Roger. It was probably the first time I had the attention span to watch a five-set match. I’d say when I was younger, I probably wasn’t as interested in watching tennis or watching some tennis matches. But that final really grabbed me.” While he is quite confident in his Wimbledon preferences, he has yet to prove himself on the big stage.

Nevertheless, what are your thoughts on Shelton’s participation? Do let us know in the comment section below.