Ben Shelton breaks his own record for fastest US Open 2023 serve with 149mph ace; Tommy Paul joins crowd in applause for compatriot
Ben Shelton served a 149 mph ace in his fourth-round clash against fellow American Tommy Paul on Sunday, breaking his own record for the fastest serve at the 2023 US Open. Previously, the World No. 47 had served a 147mph serve in the third round against Aslan Karatsev.
Shelton began the contest against Paul rather poorly, losing the first three games. However, he roared back in style to take the opener 6-4. The second set was one way traffic, with the 20-year-old winning it 6-3.
The third set began with a quick break of serve for Ben Shelton, who raced to a 3-1 lead against his compatriot. In his next service game, at 15-0, the left-hander hit the T with a 149mph, the fastest serve at his year's edition at Flushing Meadows.
The commentators were quick to notice the feat, as did the crowd on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
A big round of applause broke out on the show court, with Tommy Paul joining in and applauding his young opponent with a tap on the racquet. More impressively, Shelton served another 149 mph serve in the same game just a couple of points later.
While Shelton went on to hold serve to take a 4-1 lead, he lost the next five games as Paul battled his way back into the contest. The younger American, though, saw out a four-set win with a 6-4 set of his own to reach the quarterfinal.
"Dad is always upset when I go for the bombs" - Ben Shelton on his 147mph serve at US Open 2023
At his press conference after the third round win against Aslan Karatsev, Ben Shelton said that his father Bryan, who was an ATP pro back in the day, is not a big fan of his son going for "the bombs" on serve.
Furthermore, Shelton's father also noticed his son looking up at the screen on court showing that he was No. 1 on the leaderboard for fastest serves at the US Open and ended up giving him a "hard time" about it.
"You know this. Dad is always upset when I go for the bombs. He was saying to me after the match, he's like, I know you looked at the clock, looked right at it after. They had a little, I guess, statistic up on the screen of fastest serves of the tournament."
"He's like, I know you were looking up at that, too, to see you were number one on the leaderboard. He gave me a hard time about it," Ben Shelton said.