"Ben Shelton left the country for the first time in his life this year, it's only gonna go up" - Andy Roddick picks American for 2024 ATP Finals spot
Ben Shelton has had a breakthrough season, winning his first Tour title, reaching a Grand Slam semifinal and breaking into the top-20 in the world rankings.
The likes of former World No. 1 Andy Roddick, who analyzes the sport for Tennis Channel now, have not failed to take notice of the giant strides that the youngster has taken to reach the top of the game.
Asked to pick an American player who he thought is most likely to make the cut for the ATP Finals next year, Roddick chose Shelton. Elaborating, he said the youngster is at the very beginning of his career and will only improve his game and with each passing day.
"Personally, if I had to choose one, I think I would go with Ben Shelton," Andy Roddick said. "The guy's currently 17 in the world has made runs at Slams already and all the while he still figuring out, how to play, tennis like, he left the country this year, for the first time in his life, like it's only gonna go up."
"He's gonna break serve a little bit more, even figure out how to hold serve a little bit more, how to pitch a little bit of a better ball game," he continued.
The former World No. 1 heaped praises on Shelton's expolits since the US Open, saying he was impressed with his consistency. Notably, Shelton lifted his first career title at the Japan Open shortly after reaching the last-four in New York.
"I love that post US Open, he was consistent back-to-back weeks for the first time found that level of consistency," Andy Roddick said. "It wasn't just a shot, the shot in the arm in Australia, and then kind of take a little bit of time off and not went back to back matches semi-final."
"He would continue that in Tokyo," he continued. "So I guess Ben Shelton, but listen, they told us to pick one. I wish I could pick them all."
"Look at Korda, Ben Shelton, Tiafoe, Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz" - Andy Roddick on American tennis' future
Andy Roddick also spoke about the future of American tennis looking bright, noting that he could pick at least five names who had a "legit" shot at qualifying for the season-ending ATP Finals next year.
"Well, it'd be nice if they were a little bit different It looks like I didn't do much to help those stats unfortunately at the year in finals." Andy Roddick. "But listen, you got, I'm looking at the names on my little scratch pad here and we have five legit contenders."
He picked Sebastian Korda, Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz, adding that he could not recall the last time there were so many Americans playing top-tier tennis at the same time.
"If you look at Sebastian Korda, Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz," the former World No. 1 said. "We have five contenders for a spot of the ATP Tour finals next year."
"I don't know when the last time we could actually say that was an actually mean it, right, where it's like, it would be shocking as anyone on this list maybe next year, or so I choose to be positive with this team," he added.
Andy Roddick himself qualified for the ATP Finals six times in his career, making the semifinals thrice in 2003, 2004 and 2007.