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At the US Open we were able to admire the excellent performances of the young American Ben Shelton. We saw him well in 2023: Ben had his definitive explosion at in US, thus reaching the semi-final of the New York tournament.Shelton reached the last four at Flushing Meadows, and he only surrendered to Novak Djokovic, who, at the end of the match, mocked the young player: all this sparked a lot of controversy that even Shelton’s father fueled with his words.
Meanwhile, in the last few hours he spoke to GQ, also expressing himself regarding his relationship with criticism.
The young tennis player explained: “At the US Open there were always cameras and microphones, I went into the gym to chat with Coco Gauff and there were microphones everywhere.
They saw her every move, you don’t have a safe space where people watch you and when you go back to the hotel room you can relax.”
Shelton like Gauff: “I read the negative comments on social media”
Shelton underlined that now every move of the tennis player is marked to the letter, as also demonstrated by the video of Aryna Sabalenka’s broken racket (the Belarusian was aware of the Break Point cameras – ed.).
In this regard he reveals: “Sometimes you say something that you don’t want to be caught on camera and it gets stuck in your head.” Then on the fans’ criticisms, Ben gave a very similar response to the US Open champion and his friend Coco Gauff: “I won’t lie, I definitely look at social media.
I use the negative messages that come to me as fuel, they make me feel good and they help you play better.”
Then he continues: “Every little thing we do is analyzed and often disapproved; it happens that I make a point and shout to celebrate and people criticize me by saying that I am excessive and out of control.
It is easy in the circuit to become egocentric also because objectively everything revolves around us. They put us on a pedestal and ultimately every tennis player feels that.”
