2 Responses to ao23paul_shelton

1. Voo de Mar says:

   January 25, 2023 at 4:26 pm

   Points won by each set: | 43-38, 33-23, 41-42, 35-24 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   37 % Paul – 44 of 117
   35 % Shelton – 58 of 163

   Sensational quarterfinal of two Americans who never played at this level before. Nonetheless their route to this match was completely different. Shelton [89] it’s a unique case. One year ago during Aussie Open actually no-one knew him, he was ranked 570, but made a tremendous jump thanks to the US-Challenger circuit (three titles within three weeks to finish the year 2022). It’s shocking that before 2023, the 20-year-old Shelton never went abroad! Admittedly he didn’t draw attention in the first two Australian events before the Slam; he explained that he didn’t feel comfortably changing time-zones (16-hour difference). In Melbourne he took advantage of the favourable draw, however, he defeated three players who had eliminated seeds (Kecmanovic, Fritz, Schwartzman). Against Paul [35, the highest unseeded player] he seemed out of sorts though, he hung in there mainly thanks to his biggest weapon – powerful, diversified serve. The five years older Paul led *4:3 (30/0) in the 3rd set, at 4-all Shelton fought off three mini-match points, one of them at full speed on his second serve. In the 4th set he won another two games facing break points to avoid a double break… He’s very gifted, I see bright future in front of him. In my opinion he needs only two small improvements to be a threat for Top 10 players:
   – better movement on the baseline (he’s too slow sideways)
   – awareness of service patterns of his opponents (too many poor returns off the backhand side)
   The fact he won his 1R match saving a match point in the decider (Zhang) and won another five-setter being three points away from defeat (Wolf) are very optimistic pondering about his Slam chances in the future. I look forward to see him in European events, especially on clay, for now I expect him in the Top 20 at the end of this year… “Making it to the second weekend of a Slam, that’s everyones dream when they start playing tennis,” Paul said, “So I can’t believe I’m here right now.”

   Serve & volley: Paul 0, Shelton 5/11

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2. Voo de Mar says:

   January 25, 2023 at 4:47 pm

   The first Aussie Open in 23 years with three Americans in the quarterfinals (Korda, Paul, Shelton)… Agassi, Sampras & Woodruff in 2000

   Shelton was playing just 5th main-level event, before him something similar, Slam quarterfinal, achieved only:
   Ivanisevic (5th at Aussie Open ’89), Kyrgios (6th at Wimbledon ’14) and Popp (7th at Wimbledon ’00)

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