Ben Shelton shows sportsmanship, tells chair umpire to allow Sebastian Korda to challenge call during Shanghai Masters QF
As a true sportsman, Ben Shelton recently defended his compatriot Sebastian Korda during their quarterfinal clash at the 2023 Shanghai Masters.
Korda downed Shelton 6-7(10), 6-2, 7-6(6) in a thrilling battle on Thursday, October 12. With the win, he earned a spot in the semifinals of the ATP 1000 tournament, where he will face Hubert Hurkacz.
The duo were inseparable in the opening set as they broke each other's serves once. The set went into a tiebreak. Shelton took an early 2-0 lead in the tiebreak but interestingly, he came out to support Korda when the latter was denied by the chair umpire a chance to challenge his serve.
The 21-year-old hit a hard wide serve that Korda failed to reach with his racket. Korda then decided to challenge the call, but the chair umpire did not take notice of his appeal initially. The 23-year-old asked for it again but the official rejected his plea, saying:
"I didn't hear you. You have to make it loud or wave at me."
Meanwhile, Ben Shelton approached the chair and asked the umpire to allow his opponent to review the call.
"I saw him go like this. You can give him... I saw it, you can give him the challenge. He went like this (raised hand)," Shelton petitioned.
The umpire then changed his decision and allowed the review (as seen in the video below). In the review, however, the call was right and Korda lost the point and the challenge.
"Ben Shelton is such an electric tennis player" - Sebastian Korda
Sebastian Korda will play his first ATP 1000 semifinal after his hard-fought victory against compatriot Ben Shelton at the Shanghai Masters. During his on-court interview, he expressed his wish to play against the 21-year-old more in the future.
"It’s super cool. I played at a really high level. Ben did as well, so I think it was a really high level. We had a lot of great points out there and hopefully it’s the first of many battles that we play against each other," Korda said.
The American added that he enjoyed his first-ever encounter against Ben Shelton and called him an electric player.
"He's such an electric tennis player and it was a lot of fun to share the court with him today. I’m just thankful to stay calm. I played some bad points but I always believed in myself," he said.