Ben Shelton ended his American compatriot Taylor Fritz’s title defence at the Boss Open to lift his maiden title on grass on Sunday. The World No. 5 settled his previous three fixtures in the tournament in decisive set. The trend continued in the final, as Shelton once again took a scenic route to outwit Fritz with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 win in an hour and 48 minutes.
The 23-year-old’s girlfriend and NWSL star Trinity Rodman was present in the final to witness Shelton’s lamdmark moment. Rodman travelled more than 5,000 miles from Brazil to Germany earlier this week to reunite with her boyfriend. Rodman was on national duty, representing US women’s team for two friendly matches in Brazil.
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Shelton shared an Instagram story to praise Rodman for her efforts to show up for his tournament after his semi-final clash against Sho Shimabukuro was suspended due to poor light and slippery conditions.
Following his monumental win, Ben Shelton gave a special shoutout to Rodman for being his lucky charm and said:
“I wanna thank my girlfriend for flying here from Brazil. I won a title at I think every tournament that she’s been at this year. You’re definitely the lucky charm. So I really appreciate you making the effort.”
Even Rodman expressed her excitement with several posts about Shelton’s win in Stuttgart. Feeling “proud” after witnessing one of the most entertaining matches she has ever watched, Trinity summed up Shelton’s victory in her third story and captioned it:
“Yup..😍😍😍👀”
This isn’t the first time Rodman has pulled off a special gesture for Shelton. At last year’s US Open, Rodman flew from California and made her presence felt during his campaign’s opening win despite representing Washington Spirit less than 24 hours before.
Ben Shelton explains significance of his title win in Stuttgart
The title win campaign in Stuttgart marked Ben Shelton’s third ATP title this season after Dallas’ hard court and Munich’s clay. By adding a trophy on grass in his cabinet, Shelton became just the second American to win titles on grass, clay and hard since Sam Querrey.
Shelton had to put in the hard yards for his maiden title on grass. He had to dig deep especially after enduring a turbulent period in the second set. Shelton saved all five break points in the first set and both break points in the third as well.
For Shelton, winning the title against Fritz, who one of the best players on grass serves as a massive boost to his confidence.
“It means a lot to me. Certainly a difficult week, not an easy week to get through. I’m pretty exhausted, but to play the way I did against the quality of opponents I played in very tight matches and getting a win today against one of the best grass-court players in the world is a huge boost for my confidence. I’m just happy to get my first title here in Stuttgart,” Ben Shelton said in his on-court interview (via ATP).
“A lot of stress. I didn’t make things easy on myself, but every guy that I played I thought played really well and made things really difficult. Taylor for a period of the match today was completely unplayable. So I’ve got to give a lot of credit to the guys I played. But for me, being tough and getting through the tough matches, day in and day out, is the first step to getting to where I want to be and being in the groove that I want to be in this grass-court season,” he added.
Ben Shelton will continue to spend some more time in Germany. He will now head to Halle to compete at the Terra Wortmann Open as second seed.
Edited by Shyam Kamal