Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Ben Shelton registered his 100th tour-level win after beating Flavio Cobolli 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(1) in the round of 16 of the Canadian Open to enter the quarterfinals. Now 100-69 in his tour-level career, Shelton is the eighth man born in the 21st century and the ninth active American to reach the 100-wins mark. He will next seek another milestone — his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final — when he takes on Alex de Minaur in his fourth quarter-final at the prestigious level.
Shelton is into his third consecutive quarterfinal after reaching that stage at Wimbledon and advancing to the semis last week in Washington, D.C. He is 16-7 this year on hard courts, including his run to the Australian Open semifinals, according to ATP stats. After doing his thing in the first set, Shelton got a bit of a taste of his own medicine in the second and third sets, as the Italian piled the pressure on the American’s mighty serve while defending his own well.
Cobolli took the second and then served for the match at 5-4 in the third but that’s when the fourth seed turned on the jets. He broke back, nearly broke again for the match in the 12th game, and then won all of Cobolli’s service points in the tiebreak.
I thought I did a really good job rallying and finding a way to put returns in the court late in the match. I was struggling with my two biggest weapons, the serve and the first-ball forehand,” Shelton said. “Coming through in the end I think speaks a lot about my mental toughness and my ability to be scrappy in those moments, more so than my actual play.”
Shelton, who entered Toronto at a career-high in the PIF ATP Rankings, could move above Novak Djokovic to World No. 6 by winning his third ATP Tour title this week.
