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Back on American soil following a quarter-final finish at Wimbledon, former Florida Gator and world No. 8 Ben Shelton cruised his opening match at the Mubadala Citi DC Open against fellow American Mackenzie McDonald (No. 95), 6-3, 6-4, on Tuesday night.
It took just 1 hour and 15 minutes for Shelton to get the job done in the stadium, hitting 23 winners and nine aces. Shelton punished McDonald whenever the latter missed his first serve. Shelton won 17 of 24 second serve return points and won two of three critical break points.
Shelton dominated the opening set. The two were about even whenever rallying, but Shelton’s overpowering serve proved to be an early difference-maker. That’s par for the course for Shelton, especially in these early rounds at 500-level events. He has only truly struggled against the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 players this season in Grand Slam play, so these games are about fine-tuning his game and improving his weaknesses. He moved well on the hard court and played a strong return game.
The second game was more of the same. McDonald spent most of Shelton’s service points trying to figure out how to return a first serve coming in at 130 mph on average. Shelton’s fastest of the day came in at 145 mph, and he only had to play a second serve twice.
Shelton will face Gabriel Diallo in the Round of 16 on Thursday. While the two have never met at an ATP Tour event, Diallo got the best of Shelton, 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-3, at an October 2022 Challenger Tour event. Diallo reached the final in that tournament.
Should Shelton advance, he’d have a chance to play doubles partner and fellow American Francis Tiafoe in the quarter-finals. Another option is Flavio Cobolli, which sets up a rematch of last year’s semi-final at this event.
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